a day ago
Far-right link taints ‘patriotic' grassroots flag movement
The campaign to raise national flags around England has accepted a donation from Britain First, the far-right group.
Andy Saxon, one of the organisers of the flag protests named 'Operation Raise the Colours', said that he did not believe Britain First was a hard-right group. The painter-decorator from Wolverhampton, 47, added that Sir Keir Starmer has 'encouraged us' by saying that he 'absolutely' supported people putting up English flags.
Activists in over a dozen towns in England have joined a guerrilla movement to put up hundreds of Union and Cross of St George flags, as councils scramble to remove them on 'safety grounds'.
On Tuesday, Worcester, Teignmouth and Redditch joined the list of towns and cities where dozens of flags lined residential streets and main roads.
Saxon, a father of five, thanked Britain First for donating 250 flags, worth approximately £480, but claimed that his campaign only aimed to spread 'pride and hope'.
'We were just feeling downbeat about what's happening in the country,' he said. 'We were sitting around having a drink, thinking of things we could do to get people upbeat, and we came up with Operation Raise the Colours.
'Things are not going our way … in general, we are not feeling very patriotic and we're downbeat,' he said.
In response to the comments from Starmer's spokesman, Saxon said: 'Of course it encourages us. That's what we want, it's more just seeing the flag and feeling proud of our country once again.'
Bradford, Newcastle, Swindon, York and Norwich were all said to have flags flying on lampposts, and groups have raised in excess of £13,000 to fund the flags.
However, supporters' efforts to pitch the campaign as a show of 'patriotic outpouring' have been sullied by its links to the far right.
Saxon has shared posts from Paul Golding, the leader of Britain First, and repeatedly posted in support of Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.
Saxon, who has posted dozens of posts in support of protests at migrant hotels in recent weeks, said: 'I don't see them [Britain First] as a hard right party … I am indeed a Tommy Robinson supporter.'
• Starmer backs people putting up St George's Cross amid council row
Golding said on Monday: 'Britain First has donated 250 flags to 'Operation Raise The Colours', so far!'
Britain First, which emerged from the ashes of the British National Party (BNP) in 2011, campaigns for 'remigration' and a new treason law for politicians who 'alter the demographic makeup of the British Isles'.
Golding is a former BNP councillor and, according to reporting by Channel 4's Dispatches, was previously a member of the National Front. In 2018, he was found guilty of religiously aggravated harassment for targeting homes and people he thought were linked to a rape trial of three Muslim men, and was jailed for 18 weeks.
Tower Hamlets and the Labour-run Birmingham council have quickly scrambled staff to take the flags down, despite leaving Palestinian flags up in the months after the war in Gaza broke out.
• Labour council 'left Palestine flags up' while removing Union Jacks
'I do think the councils should leave the flags up, they're not there to hurt anyone, if they're giving people pride and hope we're not setting out to hurt anyone,' Saxon said. 'It's not illegal and it's not aimed to hurt anyone, it's something we decided to do as a community together.'
The 12 Reform-controlled councils said that they will not remove the flags, calling councils in London and Birmingham who do so 'shameful' as both had allowed Palestinian flags to fly in their areas.
Nigel Farage, the party's leader, said: 'Union flags and the Cross of St George should and will fly across the country. Reform UK will never shy away from celebrating our nation.'
Organisers of the flag protest in York said on their X page: 'Our national flag gets called vandalism, yet diversity flags 'appear' everywhere at our expense.
'If the authorities we fund put half as much into celebrating England and Britain as other nations do with their identities, decent people wouldn't feel the need to do it themselves.'
