Keir Starmer on Monday night backed the public’s right to fly St George’s flags after furious locals thwarted a second council’s efforts to remove them from lamp posts.
Council workers in Tower Hamlets, east London, were met with abuse as they began to tear down England and Union Jack flags which were hung by patriotic campaigners.
It came after Birmingham City Council provoked a backlash last week by announcing it would begin removing hundreds of similar flags from the city’s streets for ‘safety reasons’.
Critics have pointed out that Palestine flags were left to fly in parts of Birmingham and the east London borough – both of which have large Muslim populations – for months without being challenged by authorities.
An online movement called ‘Operation Raise the Colours’ has led to communities across the country hanging up flags, including in Bradford, Newcastle and Norwich.
Downing Street on Sunday backed the flying of the national flags, although stopped short of commenting on individual cases such as the disputes in Birmingham and Tower Hamlets.
Sir Keir’s official spokesman said: ‘The PM has always talked about his pride in being British, his… patriotism will always be an important thing to him.’
Asked if the Prime Minister was supportive of people putting up English flags, his spokesman said: ‘Absolutely. We put up English flags all around Downing Street every time the English football team are out trying to win games for us.’
There were fractious scenes in Tower Hamlets yesterday when a small team of council cleaners began to cut down England flags from lamp posts using long branch-lopping-style shears.
The authority is led by Lutfur Rahman of the pro-Palestine Aspire Party, and previously refused to remove hundreds of Palestine flags that were hanging from lamp posts and council buildings so as not to ‘destabilise community cohesion’.
Mr Rahman – who was previously found guilty of electoral fraud – finally ordered them to be removed last year after Jewish locals complained they were intimidating and divisive.
But when the cleaners began to remove the England and Union flags yesterday, they found themselves on the receiving end of abuse from passers-by.
‘This is a f***ing joke,’ one driver shouted, adding: ‘We’re going put them back up anyway.’
The flags could be seen dumped in a pile in the back of a refuse lorry being driven by the cleaners.
A spokesman for Tower Hamlets council said: ‘While we recognise people wish to express their views, we have a responsibility to monitor and maintain council infrastructure.’
Last night all 12 Reform UK-controlled councils said they would not be removing St George’s and Union flags from lamp posts.
Reform leader Nigel Farage said: ‘[The party] will never shy away from celebrating our nation.’
