'Clearly offended by our flag!' Oxfordshire councillor scolds authority after imposing High Court ban

A Tory councillor at Oxfordshire County Council has hit out at his authority for launching a High Court bid to ban the display of UK flags.

Speaking to GB News, Liam Walker declared the council is "clearly offended by our flag" as he expressed strong opposition to the move.

Oxfordshire County Council has applied for an injunction to block the Raise the Colours group from hanging the flag in a bid to "protect" its residents and "values".

A spokesman for the council claimed the "ongoing scale and persistence of the behaviour by Raise the Colours" has created "safety risks, caused distress within communities, and led to abuse and intimidation directed at council teams and residents".

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Delivering his verdict on the bid, Mr Walker told GB News that their timing "couldn't be any more wrong" as the country celebrates the start of the World Cup.

He said: "Well, they're clearly offended by our national flag. The World Cup has started, England had a cracking game last night, and the council's first move now is to look at this High Court injunction to get people to remove them from lampposts.

"Their timing couldn't be any more wrong, and the money they're going to spend, it's costing about £45 per flag to send crews out in the cover of darkness, to start removing flags from lampposts."

The councillor argued the main issue affecting locals is the state of potholes, not people putting up flags.

He told GB News: "Anyone who comes to Oxford will tell you, what about the potholes? When are you gonna get the potholes fixed?

"That's where the priorities and that's where the funding should be spent, not pulling down our flag from lampposts."

As host Martin Daubney highlighted that there has been no injunction to remove "Ukraine, Palestine or Pride flags", Mr Walker declared their protest has been "selective".

He said: "They're certainly very selective, aren't they? And I think the problem is with this whole debate on our flag is it becomes that sort of left versus right.

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"And actually, you can't just be a normal British person that's actually just proud of our country and proud of our heritage and proud of our flag, which you can be."

The councillor stated that any crimes committed with flags should be "for the police to investigate".

He said: "I've been very cautious to stay away from that sort of racism row, because I don't believe that is the case. And where there are examples of crimes tht have been committed, that's for the police to investigate, not for the council to start imposing rules.

"I was in a town yesterday and saw two kids stop on their push bike and put an England flag on a road sign, the sort of people that the Lib Dems, Oxford County Council are now going to be taking to court. I think the timing is terrible.

"I think that this is a sort of a lefty Oxford residents complaining to the Lib Dems about it. I think they need to get a grip, fix the potholes and spend our money on the services that actually residents care about."

Tim Bearder, leader of Oxfordshire County Council, said in a statement: "This application is about protecting our residents, our workforce and the values we stand for as a county.

"We are proud of Oxfordshire diverse communities and of our Council of Sanctuary status.

"We will proudly fly the Union Flag and Saint George's Flags at County Hall, and we fully support the right of residents to display flags on private property of their own."

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