The display of national flags on Britain’s streets has become a ‘tool of division’ and ‘intimidation’, a policing leader said yesterday.
Emily Spurrell, chairwoman of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) told a national conference that the surge in St George’s and Union Jack flags being hung on lamp posts, motorway bridges and street signs across the country was ‘sowing fear’ and ‘fuelling division’.
Ms Spurrell also hit out at the Home Secretary’s asylum plans, suggesting she was ‘demonising communities’, adding that reforms ‘must not come at the cost of compassion’.
In a major speech to a summit of police chiefs and crime commissioners, Ms Spurrell claimed the display of flags were part of a ‘disturbing’ trend in rising hate-fuelled rhetoric and deliberate misinformation about immigration and asylum seekers.
‘Flags are an expression of our identity and proudly fly outside our police buildings. But when they are used to provoke fear or assert dominance, they become tools of division’, she said. ‘That is not free expression – that is intimidation.
‘These actions are sowing fear, fuelling division and leaving – our neighbours, our colleagues and our friends – feeling unsafe in their homes and afraid to walk down the street.
‘These actions do not reflect the values of our country – compassion, fairness and respect are the values that bind us together…
‘We’ve heard this week some of the plans the Home Secretary has to overhaul the [asylum] system.
‘Change must not come at the cost of compassion.’
When asked about Shabana Mahmood’s plans, she said: ‘We need to deal with our borders, we need to have a system that works for our communities, but it needs to be rooted in compassion, it needs to be one that isn’t focused on demonising communities.’
Ms Spurrell pointed out that most of the perpetrators of violence against women and girls were British white men, not asylum seekers.
‘Let’s be clear, to couch anti-immigration rhetoric in the language of protecting women and girls is not only misleading – it is offensive,’ she added.
‘The threat to women and girls is a national emergency – but it is not one that has been imported. It comes from within our communities, our homes and, too often, from those who should be there to love and protect us.’
Yesterday, the head of the National Police Chiefs Council, Gavin Stephens, said he too was concerned about divisions in society, but he described the display of flags as an issue for local communities, adding: ‘It is not for us to police flags’.
Earlier, delegates in Westminster heard that Government plans to ditch police and crime commissioners (PCCs) were a ‘mistake’.
Ms Mahmood has described PCCs as a ‘failed experiment’ announcing the role will be abolished in 2028 to save at least £100million and help fund neighbourhood policing.
Instead, mayors and council leaders will take up the responsibilities of policing arrangements.
Ms Spurrell told the annual conference: ‘Describing PCCs as a failed experiment is as insulting as it is patently wrong.’
