Reform wants to ban Ukrainian flags – this is a stark reminder of who Nigel Farage really is

Reform tried to hit the ground running after taking control of 10 English local councils in the by-elections last week. Nigel Farage couldn’t sign executive orders in the manner of Donald Trump, so Zia Yusuf, the party chair, did the next best thing: he issued an edict in the form of a post on social media (X, which I still call Twitter).

“Reform-controlled English councils will move at speed to resolve that the only flags permitted to be flown on or in its buildings will be the Union Jack and the St George’s flag,” Yusuf wrote on bank holiday Monday. “No other flags will be permitted to be flown on its flag poles, balconies, reception desks or council-chamber walls.”

It did not take long for critics to point out that this was a ban on county flags, such as the white horse of Kent, which dates from the 17th century. Reform now controls the county council there, after winning 57 of the 81 seats.

This prompted a swift U-turn, with the party putting out a statement, adding county flags to the shortlist of those permitted. It was almost as if a blanket ban ordered by the equivalent of the party’s chief executive on social media had not been thought through...

Despite being given the chance for second thoughts, however, a Reform official confirmed to Politico that the ban on flying the Ukrainian flag would stand, saying: “The last time I checked, these were English county councils.”

This seems like an unforced error. Farage is already on the defensive about his view that Nato and the EU “provoked” the invasion of Ukraine. Mike Tapp, the Labour MP, was quick to condemn the ban: “It tells you all you need to know about Nigel Farage’s Reform that their very first act after winning elections is to ban the Ukrainian flag from our town halls.”

The Ukrainian cause is overwhelmingly popular in Britain. Even Reform voters support it – according to YouGov in February, 56 per cent of them want Ukraine to win against Russia.

The incompetence is one thing. No one really cares about county flags, most of which are 21st-century inventions anyway. Just as it was entertaining (but not very damaging) that Andrea Jenkyns, Reform’s new mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, promised to sack the county council’s diversity officers – only to discover that there aren’t any, as The Independent reported at the weekend.

Incompetence may become a more serious problem for the party once its novice councillors settle into the hard work of running their billion-pound budgets, but in the meantime, drawing attention to some of Farage’s foreign policy positions, including his admiration for President Trump, will not do Reform any good. Reform understands that symbolism matters. Liberal lefties think they are above such things – making fun of people who care about blue-black passports, but wanting to fly Ukrainian flags from public buildings.

I find myself in the unexpected position of agreeing with Reform’s position (as amended to allow county flags). Flags on public buildings should not take sides on divisive political questions – even if, as with Ukraine, the overwhelming majority of the public agree with the cause. Lutfur Rahman, the independent mayor of Tower Hamlets, was right last year, for example, to instruct council workers to take Palestinian flags down from lamp posts in his east London borough.

Farage knows what he is doing in going after what he calls “woke” flags. He knows that a lot of voters don’t like local council money spent on political gestures, and don’t like flags that seem to take for granted that everyone in an area agrees with the cause signified.

But even if a case can be made for banning Ukrainian flags, Farage is the wrong person to make it. It reminds people that, faced with the spectacle of people resisting a war of aggression by a Russian imperialist, Farage’s instinct was to blame the Ukrainian people for wanting to be closer to Nato and the EU. In 2014, when responding to a question in an interview about which world leader he admired most, Farage said: “As an operator, but not as a human being, I would say Putin.”

Farage tried to wrap himself in the flag, but tied himself in yellow and blue knots.