ST GEORGE’S Day must be a public holiday.

It is time now that we revisited the issue of having a bank holiday on the day our nation should be celebrating its patron, saint. Saint George is one of Roman Catholicism’s 14 Holy Helpers regarded as one of the most prominent military saints.

Saint George and his feast day began to gain more widespread fame among all Europeans, however, from the time of the Crusade. The St George’s flag, a red cross on a white field, was adopted by England and the city of London in 1190 for their ships entering the Mediterranean to benefit from the protection of the Genoese fleet during the Crusades and the English monarch paid an annual tribute to the Doge of Genoa for this privilege.

There are question marks over the future of the May Day bank holiday, which comes in the middle of the school term and which is close to the Whitsun bank holiday at half term.

Of our four home nations, Wales and England do not mark their own saint’s days with a national public holiday and consequently many of us find ourselves joining with the Irish to celebrate St Patrick’s Day instead. I believe it is time to end this anomaly and move the May Day bank holiday to April 23 and declare this day, St George’s Day, an annual public holiday for the people of England.

RICHARD ASHWORTH Conservative MEP for the South East Leader of the Conservative delegation in the European Parliament