Daily Mail bullying councils over flying Pride flags at town halls

Although the LGBTQ+ community has been under attack for years, the Daily Mail has decided to mark Pride month by going the extra mile. One of its reporters, Martin Beckford, has been asking councils if their officials have filled out the right forms before flying the Progress Pride flag from town halls.

In the leaked email shared with us and Byline Times, Beckford drills down into the details of the Town and Country Planning Act. Secondary legislation under the Act says that flags “bearing six horizontal equal stripes of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet” do not need planning permission. The Progress Pride flag also includes an arrow of white, pink, light blue, brown and black – and it is the difference between these two that is animating Martin Beckford.

“Isn’t the Mail supposed to champion free speech? And oppose wasting public money?” said Good Law Project’s executive director, Jo Maugham. “Yet here it is trying to bully local authorities into spending money on legal advice and stop them celebrating the lives of LGBTQ+ constituents during Pride month.”

The Daily Mail’s investigation – if that’s not too dignified an expression – is likely to have been inspired by the Reform UK-led councils that are setting about solving the pressing problems facing their constituents by  removing pride flags from their buildings.

The source of the leaked email said, “Pride Month is a time for celebration and to show our continued support for LGBTQ colleagues and the wider community”.

“These kind of requests which are politically motivated and fueled by prejudice only go to reinforce why Pride Month continues to be so important”.

The source also added how these requests are “also needlessly time-consuming” impacting on councils that “have to deliver vital services within increasingly tighter budgets”.