London MP calls for ‘unsettling’ Union flags to be taken down from lamp posts

London MP calls for ‘unsettling’ Union flags to be taken down from lamp posts

A London Labour MP has said she is ‘calling full time on flags’ following the end of the 2026 World Cup, urging people to remove them from lamp posts.

Sarah Sackman, who is the government’s Minister for Courts and Legal Services, said people in her community have described the flags as ‘unsettling, intimidating and othering’.

Writing in her local newspaper, she said: ‘Those who live and spend time in Temple Fortune and Golders Green will know that St George’s and Union Jacks were hoisted on public lamp posts, without permission, long before the World Cup.

‘It is now time for them to come down.

‘Since September, huge numbers of flags have been put up on our public property in Barnet.

‘For many members of our community, these flags do not feel like a symbol of national pride, they are a source of division and intimidation.’

Union flags and St George’s Cross flags began to appear across England last summer as part of the controversial ‘Operation Raise the Colours’ movement.

Right-wing activists were among those who attached or painted the flags onto lampposts, roundabouts and other public infrastructure.

Last year, Labour MP Dr Jeevun Sandher criticised the activity in his own letter to the local council, arguing the flags were ‘tatty’ and ‘risk detaching and falling into the road’.

He also told the Reform-controlled authority that constituents found the flags ‘unwelcoming’, adding that they make people feel ‘uncomfortable in their own community’.

In her own article, Sackman said: ‘People are entitled to fly whatever flags they wish on their own property, but our public places must belong to all.

‘Now that the World Cup is over, I am calling on Barnet Council to hand our streets back to the tolerant and inclusive majority of the community by removing the flags.’

Raise the Colours co-founder Billy Allison was charged with the murder of a pub owner in May.

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