The dark side of Raise the Colours
Early on Tuesday evening, amid rush-hour traffic, a ‘Highway Maintenance’-branded van was openly stationed on Abingdon Road affixing St George’s flags to lamp-posts. We ask who is behind it – and why the campaign is so controversial.
The group, who call themselves Raise the Colours, worked their way along the road from the Voco Hotel to Folly Bridge. Using a cherry-picker, around eight men and women in branded hi-visibility jackets hoisted the flags; filmed passers-by challenging them; and live-streamed the event to social media.
The event is the most blatant in a long-running campaign that has seen flags raised without permission on lamp-posts and other street furniture across the county. A live-stream video posted by Raise the Colours, and subsequently mirrored on a Facebook group called ‘Expose Racism’, shows an organiser repeatedly abusing Oxford residents who question the flag installation. (Content warning: abusive behaviour, hate speech.)
Who are Raise the Colours?
Nationally, Raise the Colours have been repeatedly connected with experienced far-right agitators. The group is believed to have been founded by Ryan Bridge, whose background is in compensation claims, and Elliott Stanley, who formerly ran a sex doll rental company. Reporting has linked the group to football hooligans, hate speakers on X.com, and far-right figures such as Andrew Currien, a former bodyguard for the English Defence League and an ally of Stephen Yaxley Lennon (‘Tommy Robinson’), who was jailed in connection with a race-hatred death in 2009. Hope Not Hate sets out a further list of connections between Raise the Colours, Yaxley Lennon and Britain First.
The group’s co-founder Ryan Bridge was in Oxford on Tuesday, as part of the team erecting flags on Abingdon Road. In a November article, the Mirror reported that he is wanted in Spain in connection with charges of aggravated fraud and membership of a criminal gang.
But perhaps more worrying, and not openly reported before now, is the background of the local organisers of Raise the Colours.
Oxfordshire’s Raise the Colours organisers have been connected with a series of crimes over the last 25 years, both in Oxfordshire and further afield – including a serious assault with glass bottles on a retail worker of non-white origin, pepper-spraying a pub garden, and hiding a gun used in a fatal shooting. Other activists have been charged in connection with drug supply offences. Some have been sentenced to jail terms of up to 15 years. The organisers have been repeatedly named on social media, but the Clarion is choosing not to publish their names here to discourage publicity-seeking.
Why not Raise the Colours?
A common comment on social media by supporters of Raise the Colours is “Why are you ashamed of our flag?”
There is no evidence that people object to the act of flying the flag. Indeed, for many years, Union and St George’s flags have been flown from County Hall and Oxford Town Hall, from civic buildings across Oxfordshire, and at many churches, private buildings, caravans, boats and more – without any significant public comment either way. The City Council publishes a calendar of its flag-flying days, including 15 occasions on which either the Union or St George’s flags are flown.
Rather, the current controversy relates to the perceived intent behind flying flags from lamp-posts – the message that the campaign’s organisers are seeking to push. As an illustration, one of the organisers of Raise the Colours Oxfordshire has this week posted these flag images on the group’s Facebook page:
The first was raised outside a West Midlands hotel housing asylum seekers. Comments posted in support on the RTC Facebook page included “100%”, “fuck them all off....NOW”, “All off them”, “We all know OCC love foreigners more than British people”, and “Deport the bloody lot”. Conspiracy theories posted on the group include “Brand new named trainers, clothed, fed three meals a day while they laugh in our faces… Out of the mouths of babes into currupt pockets and into thousands of third world men” and – from one of the group admins – “Why are our single mothers resorting to food banks, while an ‘asylum seeker’ from war torn France eats like a king, being given banquet style meals three times a day?”
In Oxford – a City of Sanctuary with a track record of supporting asylum seekers – it is clear that the flags are not being erected with the consent of residents. The videos posted by Raise the Colours show non-stop animosity between the flag team and local residents, pedestrians and cyclists. One commenter on the Raise the Colours page acknowledged this, writing: “Oxford was mad tonight, I’ve never seen or heard so much nastiness from people, such a beautiful city shame about the people.”
A local resident, meanwhile, posted this account of Tuesday’s flag-raising:
“The van had 'Highway Maintenance' on the side. It looked official, so cars were making space. They would park on the pavements on left and on right moving across the lanes, creating great problems for cyclists and pedestrians in particular, that could not go across. The perpetrators were laughing, provoking and threatened all people who interacted with them. We even stopped a police car passing by, and the policewoman said she could not do anything apart from talking to them and drove away.”
A police matter?
This lack of action by Thames Valley Police is a common thread. Correspondents report that submitting evidence to TVP online has been met with a rejection: “We have reviewed the report you have submitted to Thames Valley Police. The problem you reported falls under the jurisdiction of the local council and so Thames Valley Police will not be taking any further action on your report.”
However, people who have made online reports tell the Clarion that they believe there was clear evidence of offences being committed. Some residents were racially abused by the Raise the Colours activists, with one being told “‘go back to your own country’… that was one of the least offensive things they said to her”. A resident with an accent was told to “speak English”. More mundanely, the Raise the Colours van was obstructing peak-time traffic on Abingdon Road as well as pavements; road obstruction in Oxfordshire is usually dealt with by TVP.
There has been repeated evidence of harassment. An account posted earlier this year tells of a visit that organisers made to a housing construction site in southern Oxfordshire, where RTC had raised flags. On finding that the flags had been taken down, RTC activists spoke to the site supervisor – whose picture they subsequently posted to social media – and extracted an assurance that he would not remove them again.
This week, a video posted by RTC showed the organiser threatening Oxfordshire County Council highways staff who had been sent to remove the flags:
“We’ve found them. All youse on the [Facebook] Live, we’ve found them. We’re not gonna stop until youse go and we’re gonna follow you all the way out of Oxford. You’re doing a job but we’re gonna stop you doing a job. In a nice way.”
In the same video, an RTC flag operative tells the OCC crew that “We’ve got two groups that are coming out every night. We are being paid by a millionaire. We’re being paid £200 a night to come out, so we will be out tonight.”
The mystery of who is funding Raise the Colours is unresolved. Some of the local group’s costs have been met by crowdfunders on GoFundMe and JustGiving. RTC Oxfordshire has also attributed small business donors, such as a thank you to “the amazing generosity of Nick Moore Motors in Faringdon”. But the cost of purchasing and equipping a cherry-picker van, together with paying activists “£200 a night to come out”, suggests a budget beyond crowdfunding.
Friends on the inside?
The same video also hints that RTC are being tipped off by council staff. “We know that you started here… we been told by one of your council workers.”
The question of collusion was brought into sharp relief earlier this year. On 6 January, Oxfordshire County Council held an internal briefing to inform councillors as to what action the council was taking on flags. Councillors could attend in person or online.
After the addresses from officers and council leaders, Susanna Pressel, Labour councillor for Jericho & Osney, asked – in typically forthright language – about what the police could do. A recording of her question was subsequently leaked to nationalist agitators on X.com, going viral with over 12,000 reposts. After her home address was posted on the site, RTC activists went on to raise flags on her street.
The meeting was restricted to councillors (of which OCC has 69), and a very small number of senior officers who are not believed to be under suspicion. An internal investigation into the leak was said to be underway but no results have been reported.
Having learned of the meeting, which saw a virtual walk-out by some councillor attendees, the Clarion lodged a Freedom of Information Act request to ask “which councillors attended the meeting (in full or in part), and whether they attended via Teams or in person”. OCC’s FOI team said that regulations on personal data meant they could not answer:
“The purpose of an all-member private briefing is to inform elected members of the county council only on operational procedures and provide guidance on policy. These briefings are open to all county councillors and are held in private to allow a safe space for councillors to engage in free and frank discussion. The all-member briefing held on 6 January 2026 was arranged to inform all councillors of the council’s legal, and health and safety position and approach in relation to unauthorised flags.
“I can confirm that the council holds the information you have requested. However, the council considers that details of attendance at a private all-member briefing constitute personal data. This information is exempt from disclosure… The reasonable expectations of the data subjects and the nature of the information itself lead the Council to conclude that the data subjects could not reasonably expect that this information would be disclosed into the public domain.”
The irony, of course, is that Susanna Pressel would also have “reasonably expected” that her remarks would not be “disclosed into the public domain”.
The briefing coincided with national publicity about Oxfordshire County Council spending £15,000 on removing flags, extensively reported in right-wing outlets such as GB News, the Express and the Telegraph. At the time, some commentary linked the spend with a lack of investment in road maintenance, with one councillor telling the Telegraph: “It’s frankly ludicrous that our street lighting teams are being sent out under the cover of darkness to take down flags, yet when residents try to get dangerous potholes fixed, they often have to wait weeks or months” – a narrative that subsequently became popular on social media. Oxfordshire’s annual road maintenance budget is over £50m, some 4,000 times greater than the £15,000 spend on flags.
Reactions
Matthew Barber, Police & Crime Commissioner for the Thames Valley, said that it was not a police matter and called for “a little more tolerance on all sides”.
“Whilst the hanging of our national flag in public places seems to have created unwelcome division for many, it is not, in and of itself a matter for the police. As the Highways Authority, and the owners of most of the street furniture in the county, Oxfordshire County Council are entirely within their rights to remove such items, and I believe also to seek redress from those responsible if they wish to pursue it.
“My strong view is that they should seek to do so in an even-handed fashion. Whilst the flags have caused concern for some there are plenty of items of street furniture adorned with posters advertising various commercial services or events. OCC can decide to remove things attached to lamppost and railings; in my view this should be done by a clear enforcement of those rules by the council across the board if they wish to do so.
“This is an issue that I know causes agitation on both sides. Thames Valley Police should act if required to prevent a breach of the peace, but that should be the limit of involvement. It is not for the police to determine the rights or wrongs of issues where people have strongly held views, instead the police should impartially enforce the law.
“If there are cases of alleged assaults or threats from anyone relating to these issues that is of course a serious matter for the police. The police have dealt effectively with such cases in Thames Valley, identifying and pursuing suspects. We would all want to see the police spending their valuable time preventing crime and catching criminals, rather than being drawn into areas of public debate where a little more tolerance on all sides would be beneficial.”
We also approached Thames Valley Police directly for a statement but had not received a response by the time of publication.
Oxfordshire County Council said that harassment was taking place, and that it was concerned about public safety.
“We are aware of the activity undertaken in Oxford yesterday and the associated social media posts. We recognise the strength of feeling locally around this issue and the impact it’s having on our communities.
“As highways authority, our overriding responsibility is to keep people safe. Placing flags or painting them on or near highways can create serious safety hazards, including reduced visibility for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians, and increased risk of distraction. For this reason, our teams remove flags and other unauthorised attachments from streetlights during routine maintenance or where they pose an immediate risk.
“While carrying out their duties, our teams have experienced intimidating and threatening behaviour. This is completely unacceptable. We are working closely with Thames Valley Police to share evidence so that appropriate action can be taken. Anyone who experiences harassment or behaviour that may amount to a hate crime is encouraged to report it directly to the police, who can assess and investigate. Reports can be made even where individuals do not wish to be publicly identified.
“We will continue to monitor and respond to unauthorised items placed on or near highways. Residents can help by reporting concerns through our Fix My Street online tool. We are proud of our diverse communities in Oxfordshire and of being the first county council to be awarded Local Authority of Sanctuary status. We proudly fly the Union Jack and St George’s flags, and we support residents’ right to display flags on their own property.”
Anneliese Dodds, MP for Oxford East MP, said that residents had also been harassed.
“If people want to erect the England flag outside their own home that of course is their right. However, that is not what has happened here, where it appears that people who do not live in the neighbourhood were involved, who imposed themselves on the residents of Abingdon Road and disrupted traffic in the rush hour in the process. Operational matters are for the police to determine, but I was very concerned to hear about both the obstruction caused by these individuals and their cherry picker and of their apparently intimidating behaviour towards residents. There have been reports of abusive behaviour which must obviously be investigated.
“This sort of enterprise is the opposite of activity to bring our community together. I want Oxford to be a place where people feel at home and find common ground with each other in a mutually respectful and kind way.”
An open letter from Abingdon Road residents explained their opposition to Raise the Colours:
“We are horrified by this action, not because of the flags but because of the intention behind them and the underlying hate they are trying to sow. Flags are symbols. They can be symbols of unity or division. Why they are being flown gives the context. The fascists are trying to commandeer our flags as a symbol of white nationalism and anti-immigration, and they are being funded to travel long distances to communities to mark their territory like a dog, at every lamp post.
“Silence has consequences. Don’t be silent because the extremists will fill the gap.”
County councillor Brad Baines, responding to residents, cast doubt on Thames Valley Police’s response.
“I share your concerns. I have contacted the Police regarding [Raise the Colours’] inappropriate conduct. The Police refused to intervene and informed perpetrators and residents that attaching unauthorised flags is not illegal, despite being a clear violation of the Highways Act 1980 […] Councillors have no operational role over the Police. Nevertheless, this does not stop me raising concerns directly, which I have done and will continue to do. My view is clear. This blatant intimidation by far-right thugs is not acceptable. The unauthorised flags should be removed urgently.”
Readers who have contacted the Clarion have commended Oxfordshire County Council’s work in removing flags, especially from priority locations such as busy roundabouts and primary schools with significant numbers of pupils from a non-Anglo-Saxon background. But the Abingdon Road activity – the most brazen to date – suggests that while Thames Valley Police choose not to intervene, Raise the Colours believe they can act with impunity.