Birmingham City Council is forking out £2.6million to remove England and Union Jack flags from its streets.

Last month, legal action was taken to ban ‘unauthorised flags and banners’ from being fixed near roads.

Initially, the move sparked backlash, as a viral post on social media accused the council of seeking to ‘ban the national flag’ and pushing an ‘agenda’.

This was not the case, however, with the City Council forced to issue clarification, explaining that it had sought a High Court injunction to ‘prohibit unauthorised attachments on the highway’.

If caught attaching flags to street furniture without authorisation, people could face fines or jail time.

Now, the local authority’s spending has been revealed in documents submitted to the High Court.

Around 20,000 flags were installed on lampposts throughout the city as part of Operation Raise the Colours, a grassroots UK campaign.

Launched last August, it ‘promotes patriotism by encouraging the public display of the Union Jack and national flags on streets’.

The movement has proven divisive, as while supporters deem it a harmless way of expressing national pride, critics argue it has anti-immigrant sentiment and is tied to far-right ideas.

According to paperwork, the removal will cost the equivalent of £132 per flag, citing practical difficulties and ‘safety concerns’.

This is due to staff previously facing harassment while carrying out removals, the documents state, and needing police support. The council says relying on police assistance in this manner is not sustainable long-term.

They add that contractors must also undertake removals in the darkness for their own safety.

A council spokesperson has reiterated that the decision is ‘not about stopping people flying flags’ but rather focused on ‘unauthorised attachments’ on public infrastructure.

The law states that legal permission is not needed to fly the likes of the Union Flag or the St George’s Cross on your own property. However, highway authority permission is required to fly flags next to a road.

Birmingham City Council is run by a coalition of the Liberal Democrats, Greens and independents.

The flag removal operation has also raised questions around spending, given that, in September 2023, a section 11 notice was issued. This was the council effectively declaring itself bankrupt.

Since then, the authority has been under significant financial pressure and carried more than £3.5billion in debt, more than any local authority in the country.

Critiquing the flag removal scheme, Councillor Rajbir Singh, Reform UK’s shadow cabinet member for finance, said Union Flags and St George’s Crosses should not be viewed as symbols requiring removal, voicing disapproval of the decision to commit millions of pounds to taking them down while services elsewhere are cut.

On the other hand, Councillor Jane Baston, cabinet member for equalities, communities and social justice, defended the spending of public funds.

Elsewhere in the country, this weekend, Nigel Farage promised a co-founder of Raise the Colours that he will use Reform UK’s legal resources to help them put flags on lampposts.

This follows Oxfordshire County Council being granted the same High Court injunction that Birmingham Council is seeking. It was granted in July.

Speaking at the Party conference on Saturday, Farage read out a question from organiser Ryan Bridge, asking whether the politician would be ‘happy to read [his] proposal’.

Farage replied: ‘I’ll give it to our lawyers. I can’t see why it shouldn’t be legal.’

He went on to say there is ‘too much’ of ‘being told we should be ashamed of who we are’ and ‘of our flag’, accusing Oxfordshire and Birmingham of ‘clearly actually hating the country’.

‘This is not new. This anti-flag, anti-British-English identity stuff has been around for a long time,’ said Farage.

‘What your campaign has done, it’s woken up vast parts of the country, but the old enemy is still there.

‘If we can help you legally with this fight, we will help you. I promise.’

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