THE UK’s strictest headteacher has slammed Marks & Spencer after it removed a Christmas advert and apologised over Palestine claims.
M&S pulled a deleted outtake from its seasonal campaign following a backlash online.
The festive ad which was revealed earlier this month sees A-list stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney share the screen with British icon Dawn French.
Educator Katharine Birbalsingh, 50, though wasn’t impressed and shared a letter she had written to the high street chain on X, formerly known as Twitter.
She wrote: “You have a duty as our national department store to keep the spirit of Christmas alive for the sake of our children.
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"When our nation is on its knees, trying to keep our spirits high for what we can all achieve together, this is not the time for you to encourage people to ignore the inspirational spirit of Christmas of self-sacrifice, gratitude, and instead do ‘whatever we want for ourselves’.
“I run an inner-city school in London where we try hard to install values of decency in our children.
“When Marks & Spencer puts two fingers up to these values it makes our lives as teachers much more difficult and it stifles social mobility.
“How can you do this to our country at this time? Shame on you. Please take the advert down. Try again. Do better.”
Not everyone agreed with her point of view, with one critic writing: "Haven’t you got a fairly important job to do? You seem to have an awful lot of time to waste on nonsense.
“I’ve seen the ad, it simply says you don’t have to conform do your own thing. Surely there are more important things going on at the moment.”
While someone else added: “You don’t describe what you find wrong with it? 3/10 could try harder.”
Earlier, M&S had sparked anger from some areas over a now deleted Instagram post featuring an outtake from the ad which showed paper Christmas hats burning in a fire grate.
The retailer had captioned the post: “This Christmas, do only what you love... like saying no to paper hats.”
The post came under fire after commentators noticed the burning hats were the same colours as the Palestinian flag.
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Responding to the criticism, a spokesperson for M&S said in a statement: "Today we shared an outtake image from our Christmas Clothing and Home advert, which was recorded in August.
“It showed festive coloured red, green and silver party hats in a fire grate.
“While the intent was to playfully show that some people just don't enjoy wearing paper Christmas hats over the festive season, we have removed the post following feedback and we apologise for any unintentional hurt caused."
