{"id":672110,"date":"2026-07-03T18:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T18:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/672110\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T18:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T18:38:11","slug":"reform-uk-led-council-fails-to-attract-any-sponsors-for-union-flag-scheme-reform-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/672110\/","title":{"rendered":"Reform UK-led council fails to attract any sponsors for union flag scheme | Reform UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

A \u00a375,000 scheme by a Reform-led council to hang union flags at sites across the county, which the party said would \u201cnot cost the taxpayer a single penny\u201d as it would be sponsored by local businesses, has failed to attract a single sponsor, it has emerged.<\/p>\n

The plan to attach the flags to brackets on about 180 lamp-posts and other places was agreed in the autumn by Nottinghamshire\u2019s council, won by Nigel Farage\u2019s party in last year\u2019s May elections.<\/p>\n

A report by the authority justified the \u00a375,000 cost as a way to \u201cenhance civic pride\u201d, saying the national flag was \u201cseen as embodying national unity and the collective values of all the peoples and communities of the United Kingdom\u201d.<\/p>\n

After some criticism of the scheme and its cost, in December last year Lee Anderson, the Reform MP whose Ashfield seat is in the county and who is close to the council\u2019s leader, Mick Barton, posted a video<\/a> to social media.<\/p>\n

Filming himself in Ashfield at one of the flag sites, along with Barton and James Walker-Gurley, another Nottinghamshire council cabinet member, Anderson said: \u201cThere\u2019s been a few people moaning about these in \u2026 the usual third-rate media outlets, saying it\u2019s cost \u00a375,000 and it\u2019s a waste of taxpayers\u2019 money.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on: \u201cLet me tell you: yes, it has cost \u00a375,000 to put these up all throughout Nottinghamshire, but the good news is, it will not cost the taxpayer a single penny because we want to get these sponsored by local businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going to pay for the fitting, the upkeep and the maintenance. And guess what: we\u2019re actually going to make a profit on these \u2026 The people who are spouting this nonsense about its costing us a fortune \u2013 it\u2019s not costing you a single penny.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Nottinghamshire council spokesperson said that, seven months later, no sponsors had been found, with the council paying for the scheme.<\/p>\n

The council has also attracted other controversy since Reform took control, notably a row over its ban on speaking to journalists from the area\u2019s biggest local newspaper, which ended only after a threat of legal action<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reform councils often take a strong view on flags, with the party having said its policy is to fly only the union flag, St George\u2019s flag and relevant county or local emblems. This means they no longer fly Ukrainian flags as a show of solidarity, a decision that Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, has lamented.<\/p>\n

He told the Guardian<\/a> in June: \u201cI don\u2019t want to be involved in any political things, but you know, the world is so sensitive today. Sometimes little, small mistakes can break big friendship or huge contacts.\u201d<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | Every day<\/p>\n

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The Nottinghamshire document agreeing the flag scheme said the brackets would additionally be used to hang banners informing people about local services. In his video, Anderson said they would also be used to advertise for foster carers and kinship carers.<\/p>\n

Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader, said: \u201cTurns out 30p Lee<\/a> is more like \u00a375k Lee when it comes to spending taxpayers\u2019 money.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this is how they\u2019re handling council finances, it\u2019s no wonder Reform have copied the Trumpian playbook and barred local journalists from being able to scrutinise them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A \u00a375,000 scheme by a Reform-led council to hang union flags at sites across the county, which the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-672110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}