Culture Minister Hodge reprimanded by Brown for attack on the 'culturally narrow' Proms

Culture Minister Margaret Hodge has been given a dressing down by Gordon Brown after she launched an outspoken attack on the Proms.

The minister claimed the audience of the annual music event was culturally narrow and did not reflect the diversity of modern Britain.

But Downing Street immediately distanced itself from her comments, insisting the 113-year-old Proms were a "wonderful, democratic and quintessentially British institution".

And the BBC, which organises the two-month long series of concerts at the Royal Albert Hall every summer, said it brought music to the "widest possible audience".

Supporters said the concerts - culminating in the flag-waving celebration of Britishness at the Last Night of the Proms - attracted a wide and diverse audience.

Mrs Hodge was the latest Labour figure to cause controversy by wading into the subject of Britishness.

In a speech to the Institute for Public Policy Research, the MP for Barking, East London, said: "The audiences for many of our greatest cultural events - I'm thinking in particular of the Proms, but it is true of many others - is still a long way from demonstrating that people from different backgrounds feel at ease in being part of this."

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The speech was leaked to the Guardian newspaper and was delivered at 8.30am yesterday morning.

But as the row wore on there were signs of backtracking, fuelling speculation she may have been reprimanded by the Prime Minister over the remarks.

She pulled out of an interview with Radio 4's World at One programme and her office said she would not give any broadcast interviews on the subject.

Tory leader David Cameron said: "Margaret Hodge is wrong.

"We want more things where people actually come together and celebrate Britishness and actually more occasions when people think the Union jack is a great symbol of our Britishness rather than sniping at it.

"This is a classic example of a Labour politician not really getting the things that people like to do to celebrate culture, identity and a great British institution."

Shadow Arts spokesman Ed Vaizey said: "The millions of people who either attend the proms or listen to and watch them on radio and television will find her attack completely bizarre and insulting."