Rotherham Council accused of 'flag terror' over £500 St George’s and Union Flag grants

Council leaders say the flags are a “symbol of unity” and they do not want to “surrender to extremist or far-right groups".

The Labour-run council has defended its scheme offering £500 grants to groups wanting to erect Union Jack and St George’s flags in the town.

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Council chiefs has been accused of embracing 'flag terror' by the move. But council leaders argue that the flags are a “symbol of unity” which they do not want to “surrender to extremist or far-right groups," according to local media.

Désirée Reynolds, artist in residence at Sheffield City Archives, wrote on Instagram that the scheme was "nationalism and anti-humanity rhetoric fuelled by corporations".

The town in South Yorkshire was rocked by racial tension in 2024 when demonstrators tried to set fire to a hotel housing asylum seekers as race riots spread across England.

It has also attracted far-right figures after it became one of the first places exposed in the grooming gangs scandal.

The scheme was quietly announced on the council's website last week to enable community groups and parish councils to cover the cost of erecting a flagpole with either a Union Jack or St George’s flag.

Chris Read, the council’s Labour leader, said the “tiny” sum of “a few thousand pounds” on Wednesday after questions were raised about the scheme.

He said that public engagement had shown a majority of residents wanted to see them flying across the borough, adding that the funding “won’t be coming out of people’s council tax bills”.

Defending the scheme, he said: "If we allow ourselves to be in a position where we say that the flag is a sign of extremism... then... we will lose the confidence of the public, [and] we will land ourselves in a real mess in terms of what that flag is about".

Read has previously admitted that some communities were “scared” by the national flags being flown from lamp posts across the town.

But he warned against moving away from " having it flown from lamp posts, with all the implications that that has. This is really important that we are proud of the identity that we have, all of us together”