Flag wars boil over as activist confronts workers tearing down St George's Cross on orders of council that prided itself on Palestinian banners

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

This is the moment a furious Londoner confronted workers tearing down St George's Crosses on the orders of a local council - as Sir Keir Starmer waded into the row.
Tower Hamlets in east London previously prided itself on its displays of Palestine flags, but said any England banners attached to council property by an online movement called 'Operation Raise the Colours' would be promptly removed.
The initiative has spread to towns and cities including Bradford, Newcastle, Norwich and Swindon - with activists putting up English flags and Union Jacks in defiance of council bans.
An activist was today filmed confronting workers removing the flags in Tower Hamlets, asking an official: 'Who's your boss who's asked you to do it?'
When the official refused to answer, he continued: 'The whole of the Isle of Dogs has paid for these flags to be hung, for you to authorise for them to be taken down. What about all the Palestine flags?'
Turning to a nearby community support police officer, the man added: 'The rest of the flags that we have brought with our own money he has thrown in the bin, that's theft.'
Downing Street today backed people flying British or English flags in their local communities, although - amid the ongoing rows between residents and some councils - No10 declined to comment on 'individual cases'.
Sir Keir Starmer 's official spokesman said: 'I haven't asked him about specific cases or specific councils, but the PM has always talked about his pride in being British, the patriotism he feels. He's talked about that previously and he's talked about it most recently when the Lionesses had their successful campaign in the Euros.'
Asked if Sir Keir was in support of people putting up English flags, his official spokesman replied: 'Absolutely.' He highlighted how St George flags are flown in Downing Street 'every time' England's men's or women's football teams play in important games.
Campaigners were today seen painting roundabouts in Birmingham in England colours after officials sparked fury last week by tearing down St George's Crosses in the south of the city over claims they posed a safety risk.
Operation Raise the Colours supporters filmed themselves putting up England flags in Tower Hamlets last night, but this morning workers from the local council swiftly removed them using metal poles.
Tower Hamlets 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 in the borough 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.
Susan Hall, the head of the Conservative group in the London Assembly and a former candidate for London mayor, called the decision to remove the flags 'outrageous'.
'They've allowed Palestinian flags to fly there - why on earth are they taking England flags down?' she told the Daily Mail.
'If they accept other flags going up, why can't they allow British ones?'
Former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said the council had got itself into an 'unnecessary mess'.
'The Cross of St George is part of the Union flag. British flags should be allowed to be put up because this is Britain,' he told the Daily Mail.
'The accusation is they leave some flags up but want you to take down flags that are relevant to the UK.
'They need to make it clear what the rules are and apply them to everyone.
'If the rules are that you need permission to put flags up then they should make that clear rather than appearing to focus on UK flags.'
Tyrone, a cleaner who works for Tower Hamlets council, was tasked this morning with cutting down England and Union Jack flags from lampposts and dumping them in the rubbish.
But his colleague decided to leave and finish his job tomorrow due to the amount of abuse he and his colleague had been receiving from frustrated locals.
When the Daily Mail approached for a chat, Tyrone was surrounded by agitated residents urging him to stop.
'This is a f***ing joke' one of them shouted, before adding: 'We're going put them back up anyway.'
Tyrone told the Mail: 'I was sent here by my managers to take these flags down.
'I don't know the significance of these flags but I've been taking them down and getting abuse by people who are telling me to ''leave it!'.'
'They ask me, ''What has Britain become?' and say ''Don't take them down' and ''The mayor's a w****r''.
'And they get annoyed because they say the Palestinian flags were left up for weeks and months but the English flags have been removed straight away.
'But I'm just doing my job and I'm not going to let them hinder me from what I am doing.
'But my colleague is going [because of the abuse] and I need someone to watch my back while I'm doing this.
'So we will come back tomorrow around 6.30am to remove the rest when there aren't so many people around who will get upset.
'Palestinian, Jamaican, English whatever my job is to keep the road clean.'
Previous displays of Palestine flags across the east London borough prompted a legal challenge from campaign group UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), which said they could ' intimidate Jewish people' and 'encourage violence against them '.
Sue Reid for the Daily Mail revealed in a report last year how some local Jewish people were so frightened they were making plans to move.
'We feel they would like to see the back of us,' one successful Jewish woman in her 40s, who lives in the area, said. 'Anti-Semitism is being ­normalised here in Tower ­Hamlets. The majority seem to think this is perfectly all right.'
One mother in her early 50s said: 'I am the mother of a boy who goes to primary school in the borough. We have lived here for four years but we are leaving, even to go abroad, before he goes to secondary.'
The Palestine flags were put up after Israel's invasion of Gaza in 2023. But Mr Rahman - mayor of Tower Hamlets - announced a year later that he had made the 'difficult' decision to order the removal of the flags after they became the focus of 'media attacks'.
He had previously rejected the suggestion they were symbols of division.
Mr Rahman was kicked out of office in 2015 after an election court found him guilty of a series of charges, including electoral fraud and spiritual intimidation of voters.
Approximately 39.9 per cent of people in the borough are Muslim, the largest proportion of any local authority area in the UK.
A number of St George's flags have been put up across Tower Hamlets over recent days.
In response, a spokesman for the council vowed to remove them.
'We are aware members of the public have been putting up St George's flags on various structures,' the spokesman said.
'While we recognise people wish to express their views, we have a responsibility to monitor and maintain council infrastructure.
'Where flags are attached to council-owned infrastructure without permission, they may be removed as part of routine maintenance.'
But David Simmonds MP, Shadow Minister for Housing, Communities and Local Government, told the Mail: 'Tower Hamlets Council dragged their feet on taking down unlawful Palestinian flags, yet the moment people put up the flag of England or Union Jacks they send staff out to rip them down.
'Any two-tier perception – that councils turn a blind eye to foreign political banners but crack down on our national flags – is deeply corrosive to social cohesion. Where there are laws restricting what is put up on street furniture, they should be forced equally.
'We should never be ashamed of our own national flags. Conservatives will always defend the right of people to fly them proudly: they should be symbols that unite us all.'
Operation Raise the Colours began on Facebook and has spread across the country.
It appears to have its roots in Birmingham, where scores of British flags sprung up in the suburb of Northfield.
Birmingham City Council quickly confirmed it would begin ripping them down and claimed they posed a safety risk despite flying high above the traffic.
A backlash to the decision deepened further after officials privately admitted they were too scared to take down Palestine flags without extra security.
In a leaked email obtained by the Mail, council cabinet member Majid Mahmood said of the Palestine flags hanging from lampposts in February: 'We are taking these down, but we need the support of the police due to issues that have cropped [up] when we first tried to take them down.'
Critics also pointed out that the city's library was being lit up in the colours of the Pakistan flag to mark the anniversary of the country's independence, followed by the Indian flag.
Government guidance published in 2021 states that flags 'are a very British way of expressing joy and pride ' and that they wanted to see 'more flags flown, particularly the Union flag'.
An extract from the guidance reads: 'It is a symbol of national unity and pride. The government has recently issued guidance encouraging the flying of the Union Flag on all UK government buildings throughout the year, alongside other national and local flags.
'We are keen for local authorities and other local organisations to follow suit. We have made it easier for the Union Flag to be flown alongside other flags, so organisations can highlight their local identities, as well as their national identities, and celebrate special days or events which champion civic pride.'
However, it also warns that flags must not 'obscure, or hinder the interpretation of official road, rail, waterway or aircraft signs, or otherwise make hazardous the use of these types of transport'.