“Pulling down a flag is not bold ‘Reform’ it’s ducking meaningful change”.

Chair of Havering Green Party, Mark Whiley, accuses Reform Council Leader Keith Prince of stoking a culture war over Pride month to unite his party, rather than face up to difficult realities for Havering around finance and council services.

Following Council Leader Keith Prince’s first speech on Wednesday, I was hoping that the first decision of his cabinet would be around the environmental crisis at Launders Lane, the financial challenges that the administration must face, or innovation in delivering council services. Reform’s positioning statement to the borough, that I commented on, seemed to suggest this direction last week.

Instead, Cllr. Prince isn’t going for bold ‘Reform’, or facing up to difficult realities, he’s pulling down a flag. The Council Leader is directly responsible, with the Council Chief Executive, for making decisions over flag raising. His first decision is targeting the small ceremony at the start of June where we hoist the same bit of fabric up a flag pole for Pride month. This is not a costly affair, it’s held during a lunch break, once a year, with the Mayor, several people taking time off of work, and retired folk gathering under a pole for half an hour. Should anyone wish to challenge me on the costs of that, an FOI request to the council is in the post.

Speaking as an out gay man that grew up in this borough, I was subjected to a lot of homophobic bullying through my teenage years here, and was verbally homophobically abused as recently as Election Day – I’ve had several incidents since I came back to Havering in 2024. 

It’s for this reason that I believe that the flag raising is a rather cheap and easy acknowledgement by the council that LGBTQ+ people in Havering exist and recognises a rise in hate crime and the numerous specific challenges we face relating to accessing healthcare, employment, homelessness. These challenges can be felt differently still for working class people, people of colour or those from faith backgrounds. Additionally, the trans and gender non-binary communities will be facing issues using public bathrooms, changing rooms, refuge services, sports and community groups and associations. I believe the flag raising to be of minimum effort, and want more from you, not less.

To Reform, I’m glad that while your Council Leader and MP are already fighting over which county we should be part of, you’ve stoked a new culture war to unite your party. We wouldn’t want your council group to fall apart just yet. I expect to see more of this as you fail to grasp the real financial challenges the borough faces. This is also likely why you almost doubled the number of Member Champion roles in the Council. It will play well with those that want this borough to be homogenous – straight, white, Christian and with the kinds of views that suggest men should not emote unless in anger. This is what I saw a lot of growing up here. Unfortunately for some people, that will be changing.

To the LGBTQ+ community of the borough, let me say this. You will be seen, and heard, and we will be making ourselves more visible than this lunch break in the council’s calendar previously gave us. Green Party members will be joining Havering UNISON, members of the opposition at the Town Hall, and other groups to show visible support for our community on Monday at 11:50am.

There are also LGBTQ+ related events and shopping opportunities next Saturday at Mercury Mall, but I also need you to join me in a new LGBTQ+ network that campaigns to improve LGBTQ+ lives in Havering. Similar groups in Southend are working on improving gender affirming healthcare. We need to organise around our priorities in Havering. You can contact me at lgbt@markwhiley.com.

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