Katharine Birbalsingh says Oxford Union cancelled debate invitation
Katharine Birbalsingh says the Oxford Union cancelled a debate she had agreed to take part in, after the Oxford Union invited her in March to speak at This House Believes that Being British is a Birthright, not a Choice. The headteacher at Michaela School in Wembley said she named her preferred date, then waited while her assistant and PA chased the society four more times.
Birbalsingh said she received no further communication from six people on the email chain, which she said included the president, the assistant, the treasurer, the librarian and two others. In a public letter, she accused the Union of rudeness, said stonewalling was never a good look, and wrote that the society was so embarrassing.
March Invitation
In her letter to the president of the Oxford Union, Birbalsingh wrote: “You wrote a very nice and what read like a personal letter in March, inviting me to speak at the Oxford Union, to take part in the debate, 'This House Believes that Being British is a Birthright, not a Choice'.” She added: “I agreed to take part, naming my preferred date.”
Her account places the dispute inside a society founded in 1823 that hosts weekly debates on current affairs and operates independently of the University of Oxford. That record has long been tied to the Union’s claim to host open argument, which makes her complaint about a cancelled invitation part of a wider argument over how the society handles speakers it has already asked to attend.
Four Follow-Up Messages
Birbalsingh said her PA wrote four subsequent times and called the Union to ask what was taking so long in finding a date that might work for everyone. She said the messages were sent after the original invitation, but the replies she expected never came.
She wrote: “We never received any more communication from the SIX people in that email, you, your assistant, the treasurer, the librarian and two others.” In the same letter, she said: “I don't understand the rudeness demonstrated towards my PA.”
Birbalsingh's Letter
Birbalsingh used her public letter to move beyond the scheduling dispute and attack the culture she said she saw at the Union. “As a Headmistress and education reformer, I take a great interest in the future generations of this country,” she wrote, before adding: “Sometimes I despair, knowing that what we are teaching children in schools, combined with our increasing general culture of complacency, victimhood and arrogance, will result in young adults who are not able to lead honourable and dignified lives.”
She also wrote: “I am afraid that your own recent behaviour as well as that of your colleagues, only serves to confirm this worry of mine.” In another line, she said: “At the very least, you might have written and explained that you had changed your mind.”
Oxford Union Row
Speaking separately, Birbalsingh said: “When you just think of what the Oxford Union used to be, it was so revered and so admired... it was just such a different place, really. And now it's just, it's so embarrassing.” She also said: “They're just political activists who have hijacked the union in order to fulfil their own desires. And they're certainly not interested in critical thinking or in hearing anything that would slightly offend them.”
She ended the letter with a direct challenge to the six people she said were on the chain: “How can it be that six young people in positions of authority at the Oxford Union can be so ill-mannered?” For readers watching the row, the immediate takeaway is simple: Birbalsingh says she accepted the invitation, chased a date, and believes the Union pulled back without a proper explanation.
