Pride Month

David Burton-Sampson Excerpts

Thursday 4th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[David Burton-Sampson (Southend West and Leigh) (Lab)]

May I start by saying what an honour it is to speak in this debate and in other similar diversity, equality and inclusion debates? I love the fact that across this House, so many Members come together to support the right cause. It is quite obvious that there is one party whose Members are never here for these debates, and it is the party that says it wants to be in government: the Reform UK party. They cannot be bothered to turn up to express their opinions on these vital debates, and I think that that is absolutely shocking.

It is a little bitter-sweet that I am here today, and I will explain what I mean if you will allow me, Madam Deputy Speaker. I was not meant to be here today. Alongside a number of my colleagues, I was meant to be at the Royal Navy airbase in Yeovilton, but as we all know, a Merlin helicopter crashed yesterday and, sadly, three members of the Royal Navy were killed. For those of us, including my hon. Friend the Member for Macclesfield (Tim Roca), who have met these amazing people in recent months and seen their dedication, skill, commitment and teamwork and the camaraderie between them, this is devastating, and we know that they will be feeling absolutely awful and broken. On behalf of the Members of this House and the other place who should have been there today, I send our thoughts to the family, friends and colleagues of those who lost their lives in the line of duty for this country.

Let me turn to the debate today and the very important time that we stand in for the LGBTQ+ community. “What comes after Pride?” Those were the words on a flyer that was posted through my door when I was a councillor in Basildon, with the rainbow flag on the front of it. I thought, “That’s interesting—what’s this?” On the back, it told me that I should repent. I should not be who I was; I should repent. I should convert myself back to being somebody I was not. These flyers did not just come to my house; they went out right across Basildon, where I was a councillor. I got angry, as I am sure many in this House would on receiving such a direct attack on them and their community, especially after the years of discrimination that many of us who are maybe slightly older have gone through in our lives—

[Chris Vince]

No!

[David Burton-Sampson]

Well, I was born in the ’70s!

But I stopped getting angry. I thought, “Let’s turn this into something positive.” I brought together a group of people, and we formed Basildon Mini Pride. In two weeks, we arranged a march through the centre of Basildon town centre to the one local LGBTQ+ nightspot, where we had an afternoon of celebration, and we saw the support there was for us in that community. There is a lot more support than there is hatred. Off the back of that, Basildon Pride was born. I helped to build that into what I am proud to say is a brilliant organisation that operates throughout the year, supporting the LGBTQ+ community in Basildon today. While I might have moved on to Southend, I have remained chair of trustees of Basildon Pride, because it is my baby, and I want to make sure that it continues to thrive and that our amazing volunteers continue to be supported.

Why? Because, as we have heard today, Pride is more important than ever. We have all heard about ILGA-Europe’s rainbow map, showing us consistently sliding from the top place in 2015 down to 22nd place this year. I do not know how others across this place feel, but for me, that is devastating. I have worked hard on the rights of LGBTQ+ people, but I have only made a small contribution. There are many people across this country who, over many years, fought the discrimination we have faced as a community to get us to the great place where we could have civil partnerships, get married and adopt—rights that we did not have—and where hate against us was actually seen as a hate crime. We earned those rights. I stand on the shoulders of giants who fought for those rights before I came along, so it hurts me to see where we are today.

What also hurts me is the rhetoric that we hear across this country today—rhetoric that is driving wedges into our communities, and trying to drive wedges into the LGBTQ+ community. That is not acceptable. Much of that rhetoric comes from Reform UK. I am going to call that party out today, because some of its behaviour in our community is simply unacceptable.

Many buildings will fly the progress pride flag for Pride Month. Last year, Reform UK started threatening law suits against councils that were flying the progress flag. It said that legislation meant that only the rainbow flag, with the six colours, and not the progress pride flag, which includes the triangle that represents the whole LGBTQ+ community, could be flown. Many people have accepted that the progress flag is the flag that we now fly. That flag means so much to so many: when they see it in their community for one day, one week or one month during Pride, they see that we are behind them and we support them.

Reform UK was threatening law suits and councils were having to take that flag down because of a minor difference in the guidance that said that they could fly only the rainbow flag. A group of us are challenging that and working with Ministers at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to try to have the guidance changed. But for goodness’ sake, what does it matter to Reform UK? This is a flag flying that does not harm Reform but shows people in our society that they are included and part of that society. This rhetoric has to stop.

We have seen Reform UK going further in councils that it controls, as has already been mentioned, by taking the rainbow flag down and not allowing it to be flown during Pride Month or at any time. Reform- led councils are even taking the Ukrainian flags down, even though a majority of us in this House are behind supporting people in Ukraine and we show that symbolically by flying that flag across many of our buildings.

[Peter Swallow]

As my hon. Friend knows, local Reform members in Bracknell tried to block Bracknell Forest council flying the progress flag in recent years, and he knows that I share his view that we need a common-sense fix for this. Frankly, it is a waste of council time to be debating this issue and putting it though planning, when we all want a common-sense approach that allows our communities to show that they are inclusive of everyone within those communities. This is a common-sense change that we could make.

[David Burton-Sampson]

I thank my hon. Friend for his support and for working alongside me to get this matter resolved.

[Steve Race]

I have read in the media that apparently the Leader of the Opposition has instructed Conservative councils across the country not to fly the progress flag and instead to fly only the original flag from the 1970s. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is shame to see the official Opposition joining in with some of the divisive politics and rhetoric that Reform has been engaging in?

[David Burton-Sampson]

That is a real shame. I say to the Leader of the Opposition and anybody else who is concerned about this: do not be concerned, fly the flag and be proud of everybody in the community. It is a real shame and the Conservatives need to consider whether they are doing the right thing by ordering councils not to fly that flag.

Now that Reform UK has taken over Essex county council, it has even sent out an order to Essex libraries not to allow LGBTQ+ and Pride events to take place in those libraries. What is next? Are we going to go back to section 28? I hope not. I remember section 28, because I was at school during that time, and what a horrendous time it was for me as a young gay man. I was not able to see a visible representation of somebody who I knew, deep down inside, was me. For many years, I therefore thought I was wrong. I thought that the way I felt—the fact that I fancied men, or boys at the time; I was only young—was wrong, and I really struggled with that. I and many young LGBT people during the ’80s and ’90s felt guilt because we could not see that representation, and we were being told that we were wrong. It took many, many years to overcome that.

I will never forget going to my first nightclub. Many of the nightclubs outside of London were either in boarded-up buildings or down in basements, so that people could not see what was happening inside and we were hidden away. Men dancing with men or women dancing with women—disgusting! That is how it was. For me, it felt like we were being hidden away, but we fought against that, and we are now out there and proud. We have fought hard for this, and I am not willing to go backwards.

We are at a turning point, especially with our trans community, who tell me that they feel unsafe, unwanted and like they do not belong. We are talking about 0.5% of our population here, but the way that the rhetoric is going at the moment, you would think they make up half of our population. Whatever our views on the code of practice, on the back of the Supreme Court ruling, we have a trans community who are scared. We have human beings who live in this country who are currently scared, and we cannot allow that to continue.

The last time that Labour was in government, we created a tolerant country, and as a Labour Government we aim to do the same thing this time. We cannot go backwards on much of the work that we did. I know that this Government are committed to doing the right thing for the LGBTQ+ community, and the Minister outlined some of that to us earlier, so I am pleased to see that the draft conversion practices Bill will come forward soon. I do believe that the Minister will bring it forward soon, and I look forward to seeing that happen.

On improvements to trans healthcare, we have heard about the work that my amazing friend the hon. Member for North Warwickshire and Bedworth (Rachel Taylor) brought forward alongside many of us to tackle hate crime and make such behaviour an aggravated offence, alongside other hate crimes, so work is going on.

Somebody reminded me a few days ago of a Martin Niemöller poem, and it really struck a chord with me. I want to share it with the House today:

“They came for the Socialists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me

And there was no one left

To speak out for me”.

I am glad that we have people to speak for us, such as our wonderful ally, my hon. Friend the Member for Luton North (Sarah Owen), and many others across this place.

Let me go back to the flyer. What comes after Pride? We are a long way from answering that question at the moment—much further away than I would like us to be at this point in time. For now, I commit publicly to my community: I am here for you, I will keep fighting for you, and I will keep speaking out for you. We must stand together against those who are trying to divide us and sow division. In this great country, we all belong in our communities, no matter who we love or how we identify.

Like so many others, I have been made to feel that I do not belong in my lifetime. I have been unable to walk along the street holding my husband’s hand. We have been the victims of a homophobic hate crime at our house. I am not going to go back to those times— I am not willing to go back to those times—and I know many across this House will stand with me on that.

As a former Pride organiser and a chair of trustees today, I thank all the amazing Pride organisers across the country who do so much hard work for their communities, often voluntarily and in their own time. I especially thank my local Pride, Southend Pride, and the Pride I founded, Basildon Pride. You all work so hard, because you believe in the cause you are fighting for; you believe in supporting your community and pushing forward to make things better. Do not stop, do not give up, and thank you.