Government spending on Union flags soars under Boris Johnson

‘It just doesn’t fool people,’ says SNP on drive to boost pride in symbol

Boris Johnson’s government has hiked spending on Union flags to more than £163,000 in two years as part of its drive to boost pride in the national symbol.

The latest figures show spending has increased in virtually every Whitehall department since Mr Johnson became prime minister two years ago.

The £163,000 spent in 2020 and 2021 amounts to 85 per cent of flag purchases over the past four years. One leading historian said the increase amounted to a “pushback against devolution and threats to the Union”.

The Ministry of Defence has spent £118,000 since the start of 2018 while the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) spent £54,420 last year alone.

The DCMS published new guidance in March calling for the flag to be flown every day over government buildings, as culture secretary Oliver Dowden said it was a “proud reminder of our history and the ties that bind us”.

It comes as Mr Johnson’s ministers have made Union flags a prominent feature of their homes and offices for media interviews during the Covid pandemic.

Robert Jenrick got into a row with the BBC over Union flags, after he was gently mocked by Breakfast hosts about the size of his flag. The communities secretary fired back by saying the flag was a “symbol of liberty and freedom that binds the whole country together”.

Robert Colls, professor of cultural history at De Montfort University, said: “I think what we are seeing at the moment from the government is a kind of pushback against devolution and threats to the Union.”

The latest figures show the Cabinet Office has spent more than £3,000 since the start of 2018, with just under £2,000 of that funding the purchase of eight flags in the most recent financial year.

The figures, first revealed by The Guardian following Freedom of Information Act requests, found the Treasury has spent nearly £1,000 on Union flags since 2018, including three this year at a cost of £607.06.

The Department for Transport has spent £1,100 since 2018, including £700 last year, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spent £90.05 on the flags this year, with no record of purchases in other recent years.

SNP MP Tommy Sheppard said: “People will find it quite odd in the middle of a public health crisis that expenditure on flags is something that has been increasing.”

He added: “The truth is that this is a deliberate plot by the government to use the union flag to promote its political ends and it just doesn’t fool people. I’m reminded of the comment by Boris Johnson’s 18th-century namesake that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.”

The figures show the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy spent £392 this year and last – zero in the years previously – while the Department for Work and Pensions spent £1,045 in the last three years.

The Department for International Trade spent £653.05 this year and last. The Department for Education spent £134 in 2019, the Wales Office has spent £824 since 2018. This included £597.50 in 2020-21 and the same amount again on Welsh flags.

Exemptions to the DMCS’ guidance on Union flags apply when other flags – such as national flags of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, county flags or other flags to mark “civic pride” – are flown.