A new proposed bank holiday that would be named ‘United Kingdom Day’ is one step closer to becoming a reality after it cleared its first parliamentary hurdle.
Pro-Brexit Tory backbencher Peter Bone has led calls for a United Kingdom Day in June to celebrate Brexit, the Union and the Queen.
The proposed bank holiday would fall on Friday the 23rd of June, the date of the 2016 referendum on the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union.
The Wellingborough MP said an extra day off would boost workers’ productivity as there is “a long gap” between the late May and the late August bank holidays in England, Scotland and Wales.
When introducing his June Bank Holiday (Creation) Bill, Mr Bone said Boris Johnson’s Government had been “quite sniffy” about his proposals.
‘Why don’t we celebrate our United Kingdom? We don’t have a day to celebrate that’
Tory MP Peter Bone calls for a new bank holiday to celebrate Brexit, the Union and the Queen https://t.co/J2mmr90v02 pic.twitter.com/5LS4ocarNN
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Bone, MP for Wellingborough, told the chamber: “June 23, 2016 is the day when the United Kingdom voted on our membership of the European Union. It was the largest democratic participation this country has ever seen.
“Why not mark this great democratic event? Mr Speaker, why don’t we celebrate our United Kingdom? We don’t have a day to celebrate that.
“Many countries throughout the world celebrate their national day with a public holiday. For example, in France, they have Bastille Day. Canada have Canada Day. In Sweden, they have National Day of Sweden, and in the US, of course, they have Independence Day. There is no day in the year where we celebrate the union of our great four nations as one United Kingdom.
“I believe this should be corrected, and the people of this country should be able to come together and rejoice as one.”
To those who disagreed with him that the date should be a bank holiday, Mr Bone said: “If there are a handful of people who reject all these things, well of course, they can always work on United Kingdom Day.”
There are currently eight bank holidays a year in England and Wales, nine in Scotland and 10 in Northern Ireland.
The hopes of the bill passing without the government’s approval are slim, the Bill was first introduced without a vote. A second reading has been scheduled for June 26, which Mr Bone said would happen to be United Kingdom Day if it existed.
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