What was once hailed as a show of patriotism has morphed into something more sinister, pitting pro and anti flaggers against each other. Birmingham City Council is now stepping in.
14:43, 08 Oct 2025Updated 15:29, 08 Oct 2025
(Image: PA)
Birmingham City Council contractors are to embark on a month-long night-time ‘blitz’ to take down ‘unauthorised’ flags across the city.
A gang of newly-recruited staff will be taking to the streets in darkness throughout October to remove the Union and St George’s Cross flags which have appeared by the hundreds in communities across the city.
The move comes amid increasing confrontations between pro and anti-flaggers, with those putting them up and anyone trying to take them down facing abuse and challenge.
The political motivations of those involved in running operations have also been questioned.
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Adverts for temporary staff to operate cherry pickers overnight are currently live on multiple recruitment websites. Their role will be to ‘remove flags and other unauthorised items’ that have gone up on lamp-posts and public property across the city.
We understand the city council had sought to keep the details of the operation quiet for fear of antagonising organisations behind the mass flagging of city areas.
There are also said to be fears for the safety of workers.
But we understand the sheer proliferation of flags has forced the council to act.
Council leader John Cotton had previously issued a plea to flaggers to stop adding more.
He said last month: “I want to be absolutely clear with with all of your readers. I do not have any problem with people displaying their patriotism.
“I’m proud of my British, English and Birmingham identity.
“I absolutely recognise the importance of the Union flag and the flag of St George as symbols of national pride.”
But he urged people to desist from sticking them up on the highways: “In Birmingham you’re absolutely free to, and we welcome, the flying of the flag on your own property.
“But please desist from placing flags on street furniture or anywhere else.
“There are health and safety obligations we have to ensure, as the highways authority, are respected.”
But with more continuing to go up, the council has decided to act.
Coun Jamie Tennant, cabinet member for social justice, communities and equalities, confirmed the council was now in the process of taking the flags down.
He said the nation’s flags were recognised as important symbols that people could unify under, of all ethnicities, but posting them on multiple lamp-posts was unauthorised and the council needed to act.
Thousands of pounds have been donated to organisations putting up the flags while at least one group involved has set up a private company to funnel funds.
Anti-racist organisations and some community leaders have expressed concern those behind some of the flag operations are deliberately seeking to exacerbate division and push anti-migrant views, and are led by people involved in asylum seeker protests.
Social media groups linked to the movement regularly feature posts hailing the flags and proclaiming that anyone who doesn’t embrace them ‘should leave the country’.
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There have also been multiple examples of confrontation. One video exchange between a Birmingham tattooist and a flagger went viral.
The recruitment drive for Kier, the council’s contractor, is posted on several jobs sites. It is seeking workers who can operate cherry pickers – formally called mobile elevating work platforms, or MEWPs – for temporary roles starting now until the end of October.
They will be tasked with working in pairs, ‘travelling to various locations around Birmingham to carry out removal work on public buildings and property’.
The pay scale ranges from £22 to £25-an-hour.
One set of adverts advises applicants their job would be “removing unauthorised attachments (eg flags) from public property”.
The new recruits would work alongside Kier’s current staff. The ads also state the roles could be extended beyond the current end date of October 31.
Weoley Warriors pictured putting up flags along West Boulevard, Quinton, last month, September.(Image: Anita Maric / SWNS)
The council has been under huge pressure over the flags issue, which started in south Birmingham and rapidly became a national movement. Far right protagonists like Tommy Robinson have praised the initiative, while politicians across the spectrum have been unwilling to openly criticise it.
Residents who express their distaste for the initiative, claiming it has racist undertones, have been called unpatriotic and in some cases faced hostility and abuse.
The wording of one of the job ads posted for the temporary role
Birmingham City Council has been contacted for a statement. The authority told us last week, before Coun Tennant’s intervention, that the job advert was for “routine highways work”.
It said: “We proudly fly the Union flag outside the Council House every day and recognise the importance of the Union Flag and Flag of St George as symbols of national pride.
“When it comes to unauthorised items attached to lamp posts, it is normal council procedure for these to be removed on a regular basis, in line with our health and safety obligations, especially if they are becoming loose and pose a danger to motorists.
“As has always been the case, people are free to fly or hang flags from their homes or gardens, but we ask that they are not attached or added to street furniture.”
We have also reached out to contractor Kier.