Downing Street has issued a swift slap-down of comments made by culture minister Margaret Hodge that the Proms fail to promote a broader participation in British culture.

At a Downing Street press conference, the prime minister's spokesman revealed that Gordon Brown was a fan of the Proms, adding that they were "a great British institution that do a fantastic job in broadening culture."

In a speech today at the Institute for Public Policy Research, Hodge criticised the festival of classical music, saying they failed to promote a sense of belonging for people of different cultural backgrounds.

"The audiences for many of our greatest cultural events – I'm thinking in particular of the Proms – is still a long way from demonstrating that people from different backgrounds feel at ease in being part of this," she said.
The minister's comments drew an angry response from the Conservative leader, David Cameron.

"I think Margaret Hodge is wrong. I think we want more things where people come together to celebrate Britishness and more occasions when people think the Union Jack is a great symbol of our Britishness, rather than sniping at it," he said.

"It is a classic example of a Labour politician just not getting some of things people like to do to celebrate culture and identity and a great British institution."

However, the prime minister's spokesman insisted that Hodge's comments had not been intended as an attack on the Proms, which he praised as a "wonderful, democratic and quintessentially British institution".

"She supports the Proms, as does the prime minister. The Proms have done a good job with the BBC in broadening its audience," the spokesman said.

Defending the Proms, a BBC spokesman said the organisation was committed to bringing the Proms to the widest possible audience.

"This has recently been recognised by three nominations for audience development in the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards," he said.

In her speech, Hodge cited the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade last year as an example of a cultural event which offered a "shared understanding".

She also listed the cultural institutions she thought brought about togetherness in British society.

These included Coronation Street and Radio 4's The Archers, which she identified as "icons of a common culture that everybody can feel a part of and feel a collective sense of ownership in".

Wembley stadium, the British Museum, the Angel of the North, the Royal Festival Hall, the Eden Project in Cornwall and the Sage in Gateshead also received her seal of approval.