A Labour mega-donor has sparked yet another flag row after unveiling a 30-foot banner of the Palestinian flag in the leafy Cotswolds town of Stroud.
Dale Vince, who donated £5million to Labour in the run-up to the last General Election, sparked a planning spat after attaching the flag to Ecotricity’s HQ in Stroud.
Speaking to The Telegraph, local resident Marcus said: “It’s out of order. I don’t think that flag should be flown in Stroud.”
Another Stroud resident, Jeff Cloves, added: “It’s a bit hard to get angry with someone with a peace flag.”
Mr Vince, who is outspoken on other issues such as climate change and Brexit, previously draped a European Union flag from Ecotricity’s Stroud HQ.
Stroud, a leafy Cotswolds town where average house prices hit £450,000, is currently run by the local Green Party.
Ecotricity’s HQ now has a Palestine flag draped from it
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STROUD GREEN PARTY
However, the Gloucestershire market town was also a bastion of English Conservatism for almost half-a-century.
Stroud was swept up by Tony Blair’s New Labour fever in 1997 and briefly fell into Jeremy Corbyn’s hands in 2017.
Despite being won back by Boris Johnson, Sir Keir Starmer snatched the seat last July by a thumping 11,411-vote majority.
Mr Vince’s flag row encapsulates an increasingly bitter war over banners being flown across Britain.
Birmingham City Council, a Labour-run local authority that declared itself effectively bankrupt in 2023, last week confirmed it was tearing down Union Jacks and the St George’s cross from lampposts.
The cash-stricken council claimed that the flags put the lives of pedestrians and motorists “at risk, despite being placed up to 25-feet off the ground.
“Placing unauthorised attachments on street furniture, particularly tall structures like lampposts, can be dangerous,” the council said in a statement.
The debate around Israel’s war in Gaza has also seen a number of Palestinian flags spring up across England’s second-largest city.
The Labour-controlled authority declared that Union flags and St George’s crosses recently displayed across the city posed dangers to drivers and pedestrians
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XHowever, critics have warned that the flag row shows just another level in the debate about “two-tier Britain”.
Tower Hamlets Council, which is run by the hard-left Aspire Party, is also tearing down Union Jacks.
An online movement, which is being called Operation Raise the Colours, is fighting back against the move.
The Prime Minister was forced to weigh in on the row yesterday, with No10 defending Sir Keir as a “patriot” who backs people flying the flag of St George.
Sir Keir Starmer during his speech to mark St George’s Day
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PA
After being probed about councils tearing down Union Jacks and the flag of St George, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “I haven’t asked him about specific cases of specific councils.
“But what the Prime Minister has always talked about is pride in being British, his patriotism in that – not least with the Lionesses in the Euros – and patriotism will always be an important thing to him.”
“It’s a matter for those councils,” the spokesman added. “But when it comes to the PM being a patriot, he’s been clear it’s important to him in the past.”
The spokesman continued: “The PM’s always been clear about his pride in Britain, reflected in the fact we often have the St George’s flag, and other flags, flying in Downing Street.”