Shadow Paymaster General Richard Holden has hit out at Labour's refusal to fly the flag of Middlesex over Downing Street, accusing them of "hating anything traditional about Britain".
The Government has no plans to fly the flag of Middlesex County Council to mark Middlesex Day - the historic day that British troops fought against Napoleon at the Battle of Albuhera.
The previous Conservative Government did raise the flag to mark the occasion on May 16, but there are so far no plans from Starmer's Government to do so.
Discussing the move on GB News, Richard Holden criticised the Prime Minister and claimed he "doesn't understand why Labour hates our counties and they hate anything traditional about Britain".
Keir Starmer has been criticised by Richard Holden for refusing to fly the Middlesex flag over Downing Street
GB News / PA
Holden told host Martin Daubney: "In the last Conservative Government, one thing we did do was to really start to celebrate some of our counties.
"So we actually had the flag flying from Downing Street every year on county flag days. And I think it's a nice thing to do to celebrate our traditional counties.
"There's a real symbol of our Anglo-Saxon heritage, and a lot of Britain's county flags have nods to those heritages."
In a pointed attack on Labour, Holden fumed at the Government for happily flying "woke" flags, but not flags marking traditional heritage.
Holden fumed: "A lot of these things have got real links into our traditions as a country, and it saddens me that Labour are happy to fly whatever woke flag comes down comes off the production line, but when it comes to our traditional county flags, they're just not interested."
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Middlesex Day marks how British troops fought against Napoleon at the Battle of Albuhera
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Asked by Martin if the Labour Government are choosing not to fly the flag in an attempt to "not offend the French", Holden suggested that Starmer's "desire to please Europe" could be playing a part.
Holden told GB News: "I'm almost surprised they've not tried to change the name of Waterloo station under this Labour Government at the moment, given Keir Starmer's desperate desire to please our European friends.
"I think it says something about the way that Labour's instinct is. Its instinct isn't actually to defend our culture, to defend our traditions - it's actually to attack them."
He claimed: "David Lammy has been illegally flying some random bisexual flag over the Foreign Office, risking a £2,500 fine for the Government from the local council.
Holden told GB News that Labour should do a 'sensible U-turn' on their decision
GB News
"So they won't fly our traditional county flags, but they seem to literally take the knee to any woke cause going, and to me that just seems ridiculous."
Calling on the Government to make a "sensible U-turn" on their decision, Holden concluded: "It was a nice thing that Boris really led the charge on actually, when he was in No10, getting these county flags going again.
"And they've still got 'till tomorrow, it'll be nice to see No10 do a sensible U-turn and get the Middlesex County flag flying over Downing Street."
A Downing Street source defended the Government's position, telling the Telegraph: "Led by the first Prime Minister to host a St George's Day reception in Downing Street, Labour obviously understands the importance of celebrating our proud heritage."
