Birmingham council orders removal of Union flags but ‘allowed’ Palestine banners to remain

The council said the flags “can be dangerous,” and cited a list of risks, including “falling debris”, “electrical hazards”, “obscured visibility” for drivers and “weakening of the lamppost”.

But opposition councillors claimed that Palestinian flags around the city had been allowed to remain up for at least a year.

Robert Alden, the leader of the Conservative group, accused the council of having “no problem leaving other flags up over the last two years”.

“It is only now that the flags going up are St George's Cross and Union Jacks that Labour deem it urgent that they are removed – shameful,” Alden claimed.

And, in a leaked email reported by The Daily Mail, the council suggested it was hesitant to remove Palestinian flags without police protection.

Council cabinet member Majid Mahmood reportedly said of the Palestine flags on 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.”

Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick criticised what he described as a “blatant two-tier bias against the British people”, after the council allowed the Palestinian flags to fly.

“It is ridiculous that the council is taking down England flags and Union flags while Palestine flags are allowed to remain,” Jenrick commented. “We must be one country, united under one flag.”

The Tory frontbencher added: “It is a damning indictment of how bad things have become that the council appear too scared to take down unauthorised foreign flags without the police. The authorities cannot allow themselves to be intimidated into submission.”

The JC previously reported on scores of Palestinian flags in Tower Hamlets, east London. Last year, after months of complaints from residents, including members of the Jewish community, the council said it would start removing the flags from lampposts.