A city council in Britain has sought a legal order to prohibit unauthorised flags and banners from being fixed near roads

 

Reuters

Fact Check: Birmingham City Council has not sought an outright national flag ban

By Reuters Fact Check

September 4, 20263:34 PM GMT+1Updated September 4, 2026

A city council in Britain has sought a legal order to prohibit unauthorised flags and banners from being fixed near roads, not an outright ban of the national flag.

Social ​media posts linked the decision to a photo showing some ethnic-minority councillors elected to ‌Birmingham City Council.

"Birmingham City council in the UK have just pushed to ban the national flag," said an August 29 post

Opens new tab on Facebook. "Can any one think why? This is why you can’t trust these people. They do not respect other ​cultures. They only want to push their own agenda."

A post, opens new tab sharing the same photo on X ​received 1.5 million views.

Comments underneath the post suggest some believed the authority was ⁠pushing for an outright flag ban and that the photo is representative of all the authority's ​councillors.

"When a country’s own flag is outlawed on its own soil, what does that mean? It’s no ​longer your land. You’ve been conquered," said

Another said:"Looking at that lineup, the irony is hard to miss. A council largely composed of immigrant families deciding which symbols define the nation."

However, Birmingham City Council said in an online statement  

that it ​was seeking a High Court injunction to "prohibit unauthorised attachments on the highway, including flags and banners".

"We are ​not stopping people flying flags on their property," a Birmingham City Council spokesperson said in an email.

The 40 people ‌pictured ⁠in the social media post's photo montage are all listed as councillor on Birmingham City Council's website.

But the council website says it has 101 councillors. Reuters found images , opens new tab 

of the other 61 people are missing from the social media post.

Fixing items such as flags on highways or street furniture is an offence under Section 132 ​of the 1980 Highways Act .

Fixing items such as flags on highways or street furniture is an offence under Section 132 ​of the 1980 Highways Act, ​which says local ⁠authorities have a statutory duty to “maintain" the highways under their control. The act also says the relevant authority is allowed to remove any items that have ​been fixed without getting prior consent.

The British government's guide to flying flags says ​any national ⁠flag - including the Union Jack and St George's Cross - does not require planning consent to be displayed, providing you have permission of the landowner, which includes the highways authority if you want to place it next ⁠to ​a road.

VERDICT

Misleading. Birmingham City Council is seeking to prohibit the fixing ​of unauthorised flags nearhighways, not instigate an outright ban. The social media post's montage is not representative of all the ​authority's 101 councillors. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team.

.