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Related video: Police clash with anti-migrant protesters marching on Epping council offices
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Elon Musk, tech billionaire and former aide to US president Donald Trump, has waded into UK politics again, expressing his love of the national flags of England and the United Kingdom as debates continue in the country around immigration, asylum seekers and national pride.
A rising trend has seen both flags erected in towns and villages across the country, with white road markings covered in red paint to make them resemble the St George’s Cross (even though this is illegal under highways legislation).
It’s sparked fears that the hoisting of these flags and painting over of road markings could have anti-immigration sentiment attached to them – not least given an online movement called “Operation Raise the Colours”, backed by far-right individuals and organisations such as Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) and Britain First.
It also comes as the flags have made appearances at recent protests at hotels housing asylum seekers, such as The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, which has been the subject of a legal battle between Epping Forest District Council and the Home Office over whether it should be housing refugees.
The Tesla boss reacted to the Home Office's successful appeal to revoke the ban on accommodating asylum seekers in the hotel by accusing the UK government of "treason against the people".
He's also been retweeting images of the Union Jack and England flags, praising those who have erected them in their local area:
He’s expressed his support for demonstrations:
Retweeted a post from Yaxley-Lennon of a young girl waving the Union Jack:
And supported a tweet from failed London mayoral candidate and Reclaim Party leader Laurence Fox, in which the actor claimed “along each and every road there are [Union Jacks] and [England flags] flying everywhere”:
Alongside celebrating the waving of flags, Musk’s recent tweeting spree about UK politics also featured a fresh endorsement of Advance UK, the political party set up and led by former Reform UK deputy leader Ben Habib.
“Join Advance to save Britain,” he wrote.
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