Starmer: 'I'm completely at one' with people opposing asylum hotels
Starmer: 'I'm completely at one' with people opposing asylum hotels
Parliament has returned and British MPs are gearing up for the hectic party conference season.
But this week all the talk is about patriotism and immigration.
Labour ministers appear to be in a contest to demonstrate how in tune they are with the public mood, amid widespread anger at government policy towards immigration.
In recent weeks there has been a number of protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers. Some of those protests have been organised by far-right groups. All of them are anti-immigrant and against the Labour government.
But in a curious twist, the prime minister announced on Monday that he is "at one" with people who want the asylum seekers out.
Keir Starmer enthusiastically threw his rhetorical support behind the views of the protesters. "I completely get it," he insisted passionately.
"Local people by and large do not want these hotels in their towns, in their place, and nor do I.
"I'm completely at one with them on that," he said, and vowed to close "every single asylum hotel".
It is unclear whether the huge numbers of voters backing Nigel Farage's anti-immigrant party, Reform (which has topped the polls for months), are convinced.
In current polling projections, Labour's vote would completely collapse in a general election and Reform would win with a healthy majority.
It's desperate times for the British prime minister with Starmer missing no opportunity to burnish his nationalist credentials.
This week he addressed the unusual appearance across the country of thousands of Union Jack flags (representing the UK) and St George's Flags (representing England).
The result of a campaign called Operation Raise the Colours, flags have appeared in towns and cities everywhere: hung from lampposts and out of windows, on houses, even graffitied onto roundabouts.
Starmer's response: to join in. On Monday he had himself photographed in Downing Street in front of a fireplace hung with England flag bunting.
The prime minister revealed to the press that he is "a big supporter of flags". This came as a surprise to many.
'I have St George’s bunting. I also have Union Jack bunting, which is currently still hanging up in my garden shed'
- Home Secretary Yvette Cooper
Starmer further revealed he "always sits in front of a Union Jack".
He also disclosed that he has a St George's flag in his Downing Street residence.
"I think sometimes when they’re used purely for divisive purposes, actually it devalues the flag," the prime minister added.
"I don’t want to see that. I'm proud of our flag."
Enter Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, who threw her hat into the ring on Tuesday morning.
Asked on Times Radio about the issue of flags on motorway gantries, Cooper launched into an impassioned speech: "Oh, put ’em up anywhere," she declared.
"I would put them up anywhere," she added. "I mean, we put them up anywhere."
Cooper disclosed to the public that in her home, she has "not just the St George’s flag, I have St George’s bunting. I also have Union Jack bunting, which is currently still hanging up in my garden shed.
"I have Union Jack flags. We have Yorkshire Rose flags and buntings as well.
"I think flags are really important," she added.
The home secretary went on BBC Breakfast the same morning and revealed another little-known fact, that she has Union Jack tablecloths.
Majority support
Supporters say the new flag trend is an organic expression of patriotism. Many people clearly feel that national identity is under threat.
The trend has proved contentious, though, because displaying flags outside of a military, football or monarchy-related context has not traditionally been common in Britain.
Operation Raise the Colours has been boosted on social media by X owner Elon Musk and numerous prominent right-wing and far-right X users.
But it does have widespread support in Britain regardless of far-right hangers on. A new survey has found that 58 percent of people think there should be more flags on display in public, which suggests huge public backing for the new movement but also significant opposition.
Police across the country are investigating criminal damage after St George's flags were painted on homes and public buildings. In York a Chinese takeaway was graffitied with a flag and racist slogans.
Some local councils, including Birmingham and the London borough of Tower Hamlets, have been removing flags from lampposts and other council-owned infrastructure.
The mayor of Leicester, by contrast, has expressed a "pragmatic view" on flags, saying the council would "fairly quickly" remove graffiti on public property, but that he was "a bit less pressed to actually get [flags] taken down off lampposts".
Wave of protest
Opposition to the flags has been heightened since the surge in flag displays has come alongside a of wave anti-immigrant protests, over a year on from far-right riots which swept the country last August.
Masked anti-immigration protesters clashed with police over the weekend inside a shopping centre in London's Canary Wharf.
Women, pensioners and a child were reportedly pepper sprayed and an officer was punched in the face.
In west London a group of masked men tried to enter a hotel housing asylum seekers.
And in the Scottish town of Falkirk, hundreds of pro and anti-immigration demonstrators faced off in a confrontation as a wall of police kept them apart.
The government's political response to the furore over migration has been to announce a raft of new measures apparently designed to seize territory from Reform.
On Monday afternoon, Cooper told parliament the Home Office was suspending a rule that had allowed refugees to bring their partners and children to the UK.
On Tuesday morning, it emerged that the Home Office will begin a new campaign of texting foreign students warning they will be kicked out of the country when their visas run out.
But just last week, Reform announced a policy to deport 600,000 illegal immigrants in just five years if it enters government.
It seems unlikely that the government's new measures will quell public discontent any time soon.
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