EastEnders star Ross Kemp has hit out at far-right activists ‘hijacking’ the Union Jack and St George’s flags ‘for their means’.
The 61-year-old – who is best known for playing Grant Mitchell in the long-running soap – spoke his mind about the rising prevalence of the flags, which have been hung from lampposts and painted onto roundabouts, at the same time as protests over migrants being housed in hotels have soared.
He expressed his concerns that those with an agenda might display the flag for reasons other than feeling ‘pride’ at being English.
Speaking to The Mirror, he said: ‘If its’s hijacked by other people for their means, then that’s entirely up to them, but that’s not what it means to me.
‘It just means being English. I’m very proud of being English.’
He added that he saw the flag as being representative of the ‘mainstream’ and pointed to the flag appearing on shirts worn by footballers, rugby players and athletes.
The actor’s comments come nearly a week after 150,000 protesters joined the Unite The Kingdom protest, organised by anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim activist Tommy Robinson.
Swathes of demonstrators turned out bedecked in Union Jacks and England flags at the march last Saturday – where protesters also vocally mourned Charlie Kirk after the conservative activist was shot dead last week.
EastEnders star Ross Kemp has hit out at far-right activists ‘hijacking’ the Union Jack and St George’s flags ‘for their means’
The actor’s comments come nearly a week after 150,000 protesters joined the Unite The Kingdom protest, organised by anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim activist Tommy Robinson
The rally was believed to be the largest right-wing protest in British history and came amid a growing drive for the St George and Union flags to be displayed across England in the face of opposition from the authorities.
It began when Birmingham City Council announced it would take down hundreds of flags put up on lamp posts in recent weeks by a group who described themselves as ‘proud English men’, but who would not reveal their identities.
The Labour-run authority said it was updating the streetlights and warned that ‘unauthorised items’ could risk pedestrians’ and motorists’ lives, despite being 25 feet in the air.
It sparked a furious backlash as critics pointed out that Palestine flags had been allowed to fly in the city for months, while the Council had also lit up its library in the colours of Pakistan and India on successive days.
Birmingham City Council also privately admitted it needed the ‘support of the police’ to remove Palestine flags from lamp posts because of ‘issues that have cropped [up] when we first tried to take them down’.
Then workers for Tower Hamlets Council in east London were seen taking down St George flags put up by the burgeoning online movement known as ‘Operation Raise The Colours’.
Yet the authority had previously refused to take down unauthorised Palestinian flags ‘because we believe it could destabilise community cohesion’.
Town halls across the country have since condemned the painting of St George’s Crosses on mini-roundabouts, as well as a wave of protests across Britain held in front of migrant hotels.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman has previously insisted that Sir Keir was ‘absolutely’ supportive of people putting up English flags, but other politicians have expressed concerns about the campaign, and anti-racist groups have claimed it is being driven by the far Right.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch meanwhile says town halls taking down English flags are fuelling racial division.
Writing in the Mail earlier this month, she said there is ‘nothing racist about flying the flag of your nation’ and ‘nothing extreme’ about feeling pride for the country
Mrs Badenoch attacked the local authorities for their ‘double standards’ after they allowed Palestinian banners to be displayed, as well as marking other countries’ independence days and lighting up buildings for Black Lives Matter.
And she blasted Keir Starmer for using the English flag as a ‘football prop’, claiming other Labour MPs are only posing with it because Downing Street has told them to.
In her exclusive article, Mrs Badenoch writes: ‘The flag of St George predates the Union flag. It is a symbol that has stood for centuries.
‘It should not be controversial to say that we are proud of it. The denigration of anything British in the name of ‘diversity’ is not progressive. It is divisive. It must stop.
‘It shouldn’t be a revolutionary act to fly our own flags in our own country.’
