A Councillor in a British town was left beaming after a huge turnout at a St George's Day celebration in Dartford.
Every year, Dartford hosts an annual celebration of England’s patron saint with live music, life-like characters, and a school parade.
The ethos of the event looks to celebrate and showcase a culturally diverse England and how regardless of ethnicity, faith and background, everyone can "come together to celebrate British culture".
Speaking to GB News, the leader of Dartford Council Jeremy Kite said: "We're a council that likes to party and we believe in these celebrations. It's a big day for the country and we want to celebrate it.
leader of Dartford Council Jeremy Kite praised the celebration
GB News
"So no naysaying here. Saint George's day for us."
He added: "I mean, we live in a diverse community here, and it's wonderfully colourful, noisy and brilliant and we've got great people here.
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"The point is, this is one of a number of celebrations we do. So we'll celebrate every culture, we'll celebrate every religion, everything that's going on.
"We'll latch onto it, and we'll use it as a way of bringing the whole community together."
GB News presenter Stephen Dixon asked: "What impact has it had on community cohesion as well?"
Kite explained: "Well, you've been here. You can see for yourself. Everyone's happy. I'm not sure. We tend not to use buzzwords like cohesion or inclusion.
The day is to honour the patron Saint George
Getty"It's just being a community and being together. People seem happy, The town centre is happy because they get business and people with lots of footfall.
"So we're happy with that. Yeah, it isn't about buzzwords. It really is just about old-fashioned community feeling."
He added: "It might feel English, but you look around, you'll see people here from all over the world that are now settled in Dartford and this is their home.
"We want to make them welcome. We want to explain about our culture, our wonderful, weird, mad culture.
Stephen Dixon spoke to Cllr Kite on GB News
GB News
"Sometimes we've got a very large Saint George here, and a very large dragon explaining the story.
"Explaining about the love we have for our country, which is just about the things we do and the things we can achieve for the world and help."
This comes after Keir Starmer the leader of the opposition took to the The Telegraphto lay out his “great pride and gratitude to be English”.
In an op-ed, he promises that under a Labour government “we will celebrate St George’s Day with enthusiasm, an enthusiasm shared by each patron saints’ day on our isles".
Some have criticised the statement, including Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns who believes the Labour leader is guilty of being "disingenuous".
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak marked St George's Day by sipping from a cup of coffee in a mug marked with a red cross, with a message: "Perfect way to start the day. Happy St George’s Day!"
