❓WHAT HAPPENED: Tower Hamlets Council in London, England, has been removing English St. George’s Cross flags put up as part of the ‘Operation Raise the Colours’ initiative. The municipal government previously allowed Palestinian flags to fly in the borough.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Tower Hamlets Council, led by Bangladesh-born Mayor Lutfur Rahman, and patriotic activists participating in ‘Operation Raise the Colours’.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Tower Hamlets, East London, in recent days.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Where flags are attached to council-owned infrastructure without permission, they may be removed as part of routine maintenance.” – Tower Hamlets Council spokesman.
🎯IMPACT: The removal of England flags has sparked accusations of hypocrisy and intensified a nationwide debate over the treatment of national symbols.
English St George’s Cross flags placed on lampposts and other public infrastructure as part of the grassroots ‘Operation Raise the Colours’ movement in Tower Hamlets, East London, are being torn down by the municipal government. This campaign, which started on Facebook, has seen British and English flags put up in many British cities and towns, including London, Bradford, Newcastle, Norwich, and Swindon.
Tower Hamlets Council, led by Bangladesh-born Mayor Lutfur Rahman, of the pro-Palestinian Aspire Party, has drawn criticism for moving quickly to remove the English national flag, despite previously allowing Palestinian flags to be flown from public infrastructure in the wake of the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel by Hamas.
Notably, Rahman—formerly of Britain’s governing Labour Party—was ejected from the mayoralty in 2015 for electoral fraud. Still, the Bangladeshi community, which dominates the borough demographically, voted him back into office once his ban from holding elected office expired.
He resisted removing numerous Palestinian flags just last year, citing “community cohesion,” only relenting under threat of legal action by Jewish residents.
Happened in Tower Hamlets pic.twitter.com/LCNpJBxGkD
— London & UK Street News (@CrimeLdn) August 19, 2025
‘Operation Raise the Colours’ began as a response to illegal immigrants, largely unvetted, being placed into a hotel in London’s Canary Wharf en masse. The migrants soon caused tension with locals, with one entering a woman’s home but being protected by police from locals who assembled in response, with law enforcement insisting he had not committed a crime. Similar migrant hotels are present across the country.
Activists elsewhere in England have been painting roundabouts with the St. George’s Cross, after their local councils began pulling down flags. However, as in London, Palestinian flags have been removed with much less alacrity, with Birmingham City Council, for instance, claiming that taking the foreign banners down would require additional security.
The controversy in Birmingham only deepened when the city’s library was illuminated in the colors of the Pakistani and Indian flags to celebrate their independence anniversaries shortly after the English flags had been taken down.
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