KEIR Starmer will announce that he is “proud of the Saltire” in his big speech to Labour’s party conference.
The Prime Minister will deliver his address on the last day of the gathering in Liverpool on Tuesday and will say he wants to “renew Scotland”.
It comes amid a ferocious debate throughout the UK about flags, after far-right activists encouraged people to fly the Union Jack, the St George’s Cross and the Saltire from lampposts and bridges across Britain.
Starmer will attempt to reclaim the symbols from far-right campaigners in his keynote speech at Labour conference and is expected to say: “I’m not just proud of the Union Jack and the cross of St George, I’m also proud of the Saltire, proud of the Red Dragon, proud of our Union.
“This astonishing relationship between four great nations, four different nations, but four nations that time and again have been through the fire together, built so much together. A country forged by the solidarity of working people.”
He will say that Labour will fight next year’s devolved parliament elections in Wales and Scotland as “patriots of our great nations”.
Starmer is expected to add: “So let’s fly all our flags, because they are our flags, they belong to us all and we will never surrender them. This is the time for bringing the whole country together. That’s how we will fight next year’s elections, as patriots of our great nations.
“That’s who we are, who Eluned [Morgan, Welsh First Minister] is, who Anas [Sarwar, Scottish Labour leader (above)] is, what we stand for. A campaign to renew Wales, renew Scotland and Renew Britain.”
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said: "It is ironic and pretty desperate that Keir Starmer is now wrapping himself in no less than four flags, but even that won't cushion the fall as his popularity hits rock bottom. "If Keir Starmer actually had any respect for Scotland, our saltire and our democracy, he would stop denying our people the right to choose a future beyond the doom loop of broken, Brexit Britain."
The flag-raising campaign was dubbed “raising the colours” in far-right online groups and grew in prominence after councils began taking down flags.
Council workers tasked with removing flags have been met with intimidation and abuse, with a spokesperson for Aberdeenshire’s local authority previously telling The National: “Sadly, we have also seen a rise in our staff being threatened when taking [flags] down.”
Kieran Logan, a leading voice in the campaign encouraging people to raise flags in Scotland, reportedly called for refugees to be “gassed”.
The leader of the Team Tartan campaign referred to the deaths of migrants who drowned in a boat as “f****** amazing” and in a social media post, the group referred to people taking down flags in Maryhill, Glasgow as “scum”.
Some mainstream political figures have also lent their voice to the “raising the colours” campaign, with Tory frontbencher Robert Jenrick – seen as having leadership ambitions – sharing pictures of himself hoisting up flags in his constituency over the summer.
In a post on social media, the senior Conservative MP and former minister said: “Raise the Colours! While Britain-hating councils take down our flags, we raise them up. We must be one country, under the Union flag.”
First Minister John Swinney earlier this month responded to fears the Saltire was being hijacked by the far-right, telling MSPs that the “national flag of Scotland has always been represented as an inclusive flag, which is there to draw all of us together in Scotland as an essential part of our national identity”.
