Labour plotting to ban Christmas songs, claims Reform councillor

Is Labour planning to ban the singing of Christmas songs? Well, no, of course it’s not – but that’s not stopped one Reform councillor from claiming it as fact.

Joseph Boam, a Leicestershire councillor who briefly served as the council’s deputy leader this year before being sacked for being hopeless, has claimed on X on the basis of nothing whatsoever that the government is planning a “banter ban” outlawing the singing of festive songs.

“They’re coming for festive sing alongs next,” the 22-year-old told his 41,000 followers. “Under Labour’s ‘Banter Ban’, singing along to classic Christmas tunes with ‘offensive’ lyrics in pubs or restaurants could soon be OUTLAWED. No more ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’, ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’, or even ‘Jingle Bells’.”

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He then listed why the songs could be considered offensive – admittedly, “what ChatGPT thinks” – including that “some claim” that early versions of Jingle Bells mocked enslaved people “though those verses are lost/unverified”. “This isn’t protecting people,” warned Boam. “It’s killing fun, tradition and free speech.”

It’s all a load of baubles, of course, but alas unlikely to stop Boam, considered a rising star in Nigel Farage’s party despite being summarily sacked as Leicestershire’s deputy leader and lead member for adult social care positions after just three months earlier this year when it emerged he wasn’t up to the job.

“We reviewed and talked with the director and found that Joe accepted he wasn’t able to do the job, not the way it should have been done or whatever the spec was, and I’ve no idea because I haven’t been given a spec,” garbled council leader Dan Harrison. “He was struggling with the understanding of the role. It’s a tough, demanding role.” Asked why he had given such an important job to a 22–year-old ice cream salesman who likes to refer to himself as Lord Joseph Boam II, he said: “He wanted it, he wanted it. That was the biggest job, so he said ‘I’ll do that one’.” He’ll go far!