Saqib Bhatti: As a British Muslim I have great pride in the flags of our country, I can’t help it

Saqib Bhatti MP is the Shadow Minister of State for Education and the MP for Meriden and Solihull East.

Being proud of our national flag should never be controversial. Yet in recent weeks it has become exactly that.

This isn’t because of the public or minority communities but due wholly to the clumsy way Labour councils across the country have insisted on taking down St George’s flags put up by the public.

Birmingham’s Labour council reached national prominence after cack-handedly taking down the flags while leaving up Palestinian flags which had been flying for months. In a bizarre sign of the times even Downing Street had to confirm the Prime Minister’s patriotism!

The Union flag and the flag of St George are powerful symbols. They remind us of our shared history, the sacrifices of those who came before us, and the values that bind us together. They fly above our schools, our hospitals, our courts, and our Parliament. These are not flags that belong to one political party, one ethnicity, or one faith. They belong to all of us.

That is why Birmingham’s Labour council got it so wrong.

Tokenistic deference to separate groups does harm to everybody.

It diminishes the richness of our shared identity and feeds suspicion that some communities are treated one way, and others another. That is corrosive and the reason why we increasingly hear about a two-tier society. Everyone must be equal under the law and equal under our shared national identity.

We must never forget that there is no greater British value than fairness.

As I have driven through Birmingham recently and when I have seen the St George’s flag and the Union flag, I have looked on with great pride. I can’t help it.

As a British Muslim of Pakistani heritage, I feel this pride deeply.

My faith and heritage are central to who I am, but so too is my Britishness. Loving Britain does not mean denying where my family came from, just as honouring my heritage does not make me less proud to be British. These are not competing loyalties. They strengthen one another. The strength of modern Britain is that we do not have to choose between pride in our roots and pride in our country. We can, and should, be proud of both.

Too often, British Muslims have become an easy target in an attempt to build an “us and them” narrative. I say to British Muslims, do not be shy in showing who you are. You contribute enormously to our society, you build businesses, you serve in the NHS and in Parliament. You wear the uniform of our armed forces with distinction and courage and as we reflected on VJ Day, you have done so for more than a century.

Our parents and grandparents came to Britain with little more than hope and hard work. They helped build modern Britain under the same Union flag and St George’s cross that fly today. Yet for too long, we have allowed others to define the meaning of these flags. On the one hand, extremists on the far right have tried to weaponise them as symbols of exclusion. On the other, some have been reluctant to embrace them, as if flying our flag might alienate minority communities. Both are wrong. Both rob us of the chance to see the flags as shared symbols of pride and belonging, which is what they really are.

It is time to reclaim our flags. Being proud of the Union flag or the flag of St George should not divide communities, instead it should unite them. When our footballers walk onto the pitch, when our Olympic athletes compete, when our servicemen and women march, we cheer together under those flags.

That pride, that sense of belonging, is what we should be encouraging in every town, every city, and every community.

Local and national leaders have a duty to lead with confidence, not with timidity. Councils should not play politics with our flags, nor treat communities as if they live under different rules. Our national flags remind us that we are all equal under the law, equal in our rights,and equal in our responsibilities.

They are symbols of our shared freedoms, our institutions, our history, and our future. We are proud, we are British, we are English,we are one nation.

No matter who tries to divide us.