US vice-president JD Vance has urged Brits to ‘push back against the crazies’ as he waded into a row over Union Jack and St George’s Cross flags.
Huge numbers of UK or English flags have been put up in cities, towns and villages across Britain in recent weeks.
Campaigners put the flags on display following an online movement called ‘Operation Raise the Colours’.
But it sparked a row after some local councils, such as Tower Hamlets and Birmingham, took them down from council-owned infrastructure such as lampposts.
The local authorities cited health and safety reasons for removing the flags.
Mr Vance was quizzed on Fox News about whether he had seen how ‘the English flag has simultaneously become controversial and patriotic’.
The US vice-president spoke of how a friend of his had been afraid of flying the American flag in the summer of 2020 at the height of Black Lives Matter protests.
‘You see the same things happening in Europe, and I think we just have to be on guard against this stuff,’ Mr Vance told The Will Cain Show.
US vice-president JD Vance has urged Brits to ‘push back against the crazies’ as he waded into a row over Union Jack and St George’s Cross flags
St George’s Cross and Union Jack flags are pictured tied to lampposts around Weoley Castle, Birmingham
Tory shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick, who met with Mr Vance during his holiday in the Cotswolds this month, spent time raising Union Jacks across his Newark constituencyÂ
The US vice-president added: ‘It’s OK to be proud of your country. It’s in fact a good thing to be proud of your country.
‘We should push back against the crazies who say we should be so ashamed of our culture and of our heritage that we shouldn’t be willing to fly a flag. It’s craziness.
‘We got to call that craziness out. I’d encourage our European friends to follow suit.’
Mr Vance has frequently spoken out on free speech issues in Britain and Europe.
In an address at the Munich Security Conference in Germany in February, Mr Vance warned Europe’s greatest threat came not from China or Russia but from within.Â
He said free speech and democratic institutions were being eroded and accused European politicians of forcing people to shut down social media accounts.
Mr Vance criticised the UK over a legal case in which a former serviceman who silently prayed outside an abortion clinic was convicted of breaching the safe zone around the centre.
In a wider attack on what he suggested was a shift away from democratic values across Europe, Mr Vance claimed the ‘basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular’ are under threat.
He said that America’s ‘very dear friends the United Kingdom’ appeared to have seen a ‘backslide in conscience rights’.
Downing Street last week said the Prime Minister is ‘absolutely’ supportive of people who put up English flags.
Sir Keir Starmer’s official spokesman said: ‘I think the PM has always talked about his pride of being British, the patriotism he feels.
‘I think he’s talked about that previously… not least recently in relation to the Lionesses’ successful campaign in the Euros.
‘Patriotism will always be an important thing to him.’
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said it was ‘shameful’ of councils to remove St George’s Cross flags.
Writing in the Daily Mail, Mrs Badenoch added the flying of English flags should be ‘welcomed’, rather than ‘seen as an act of rebellion’.
She pointed to the hesitation of some councils to ‘address the widespread appearance of Palestinian flags’ as an example of ‘those using power to push a sectarian agenda’.
Tory shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick, who met with Mr Vance during his holiday in the Cotswolds this month, recently spent time raising Union Jacks across his Newark constituency.
He attacked ‘cowardly’ and ‘Britain-hating’ councils which attempt to take down the national flag.
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