British flag-raising and anti-migrant vigilante group
Ryan Bridge (left) and Elliott Stanley of Raise the Colours, in Stirchley
Raise the Colours is a British group whose members attach flags to lampposts and engage in anti-migrant vigilantism. It is one of a number of organisations behind the campaign Operation Raise the Colours, which rose to public prominence in England in autumn 2025. The organisation was co-founded by Ryan Bridge and Elliott Stanley, two businessmen from Birmingham and north Worcestershire, England.
Raise the Colours has collected financial donations, using them to fund the attachment of Union and England flags to lampposts in a number of suburbs in Birmingham and villages in Worcestershire, without the necessary permission of the highways authority. Some residents of these suburbs and villages have experienced intimidation and non-white residents have said that they are scared to leave their homes since the flags went up. In some places, residents have organised to take down the flags. In one Birmingham suburb, Stirchley, Raise the Colours have returned repeatedly to replace flags taken down, leading to confrontations with locals.
Bridge and Stanley have denied that the group is far-right, describing themselves as "patriots" and "centrists". In November 2025, the group have made multiple visits to northern France and Paris with Tommy Robinson associate Danny "Tommo" Thomas, where its members filmed themselves harassing migrants, posting videos on the group's social media pages, claiming that the "indigenous white population" is being "replaced in our own country". They have made appeals to "firms" of British football hooligans to join them in vigilante action against migrants in France.
Founders
Background
Ryan Bridge grew up in Birmingham and has said that he comes from a working-class family. He told the BBC that his grandparents had a tea service featuring the then Prince Charles and Princess Diana, "adding that people waved union jacks for a royal visit to Selly Oak, and as a cub scout he walked down the high street waving the same colours".[1]
During a GB News interview, Bridge stated "We are normal, working class Birmingham businessmen". Bridge owns a house in Bromsgrove that is reported to be worth £600,000.[2] According to the Birmingham Mail, "[Elliott] Stanley's home address is a leafy crescent in Bromsgrove".[3]
In October 2025, Bridge told the BBC that members of Raise the Colours are all fans of Birmingham City F.C.[1]
Business activities
Ryan Bridge has created a number of companies that operate in the area of compensation claims. These include Nationwide Personal Injury Specialists and UK Holiday Claims Ltd. The latter company was registered in 2016 but was dissolved two years later, with no accounts being filed.[2][4] Around this time, Bridge was named by Spanish police as suspected of being involved in a scam that encouraged holidaymakers to submit false compensation claims, in return for a share of any proceeds from the claims. Messages were sent to holidaymakers using a WhatsApp group with the name UK Holiday Claims.[2][5][6][7][bettersourceneeded] A court instruction names Bridge amongst those who are alleged to have been involved in processing false claims of food poisoning.[8][9][10][11] As of 3 October 2025, the case was awaiting trial.[2][12]
Elliott Stanley is a former director of Sex Doll Official, which sold and rented out sex dolls. Stanley ran the company with his wife and teenage son from their home in Bromsgrove, but it failed during the COVID-19 pandemic.[13][12] According to BirminghamWorld, the company provided "the industry’s first rental service and [its] long list of customers included bereaved men who wanted a replica of their late partners".[14]
Raise the Colours was co-founded by Bridge and Stanley, who are its directors. The organisation has attached Union and England flags to lampposts in a number of suburbs in Birmingham and villages in Worcestershire, including Stirchley,[2][15]Harborne,[16]Alvechurch,[17]Barnt Green and Blackwell.[1] Stanley has stated that "We want to cover the city centre at some point".[16] Attaching flags to lampposts without the permission of the relevant highways authority is not allowed and people doing so may be committing an offence.[18]
The organisation's fundraising page states that "We are the founding members of this operation, which has taken off all over the UK", although there are a number of other individuals and groups that also claim to be the originators of Operation Raise the Colours, some of which use the same name.[2][12] Stanley told the Telegraph that "I started the movement in south Birmingham and it’s gone national and we have been doing it for a long time".[19] Bridge has claimed that the flag raising originated with remembrance campaigns associated with the Royal British Legion and that the campaign initially "tagged on to the back of that". A Royal British Legion spokesperson quoted by the BBC said, "The Royal British Legion is a non-partisan organisation and is not affiliated with any flag-raising groups".[1]
According to an article published on 3 October 2025 by the Birmingham-based online newspaper The Dispatch, when asked about how donations were being handled, Bridge told a reporter that he was registering the organisation with Companies House, though not under the name Raise the Colours.[2] As of 1 November 2025, no such company had been registered.[12]
Community reactions
According to BBC News, some residents of Worcestershire villages where flags have been erected by Raise the Colours "said non-white people in the area felt scared to walk the streets", with one resident reported as stating, "Some people have been in tears because of the clear far-right racism that these flags represent." Bridge has responded that the flags have "nothing to do with the pigment in anyone's skin" and denies that the group's actions are motivated by racism.[1] He told the BBC that he had "no regrets" over his actions with the group.[1][20]
In some places, including the Birmingham suburb of Stirchley, local residents have organised to take down the flags, but Raise the Colours have returned multiple times to replace them using a cherry picker, leading to confrontations with locals.[21][22][23] On one of these occasions, officers from West Midlands Police were called to the scene. Asked to stop the men putting flags up, a police officer stated "I understand tensions are running really high, but in the bounds of the law at the moment there isn't an offence". The police stated that they were attending to prevent a breach of the peace. Some local residents argued that the effect was that the police gave Raise the Colours an escort, and asked whether those removing flags would be given a similar "red carpet treatment".[24] A video from the same evening, in which a local businessman argued with one of the group's members and told him "You're trying to intimidate good, hard-working people", went viral on social media.[25]
Signs added to flag bunting by participants at a community event organised to protest against racism and intimidation, Stichley, Birmingham, 18 October 2025
Local business in Stirchley have reported experiencing intimidation from the group.[26] On the night of 30 September, two businesses where customers had opposed flags being raised nearby were pelted with flour, eggs and condiments. According to a local newspaper, "locals suspect people connected to the flaggers [were] to blame".[2] In late October, local MP Al Carns issued a statement that he was "deeply concerned and disappointed" to learn of reports of intimidation. "These acts are wholly unacceptable and undermine the safety, security and well-being of our residents, visitors and workers", Carns said.[26] Local councillor Mary Locke said, "The people here don't want this. We're welcoming and friendly. We're inclusive".[21] Stanley stated, "I don’t want anyone to be intimidated. I refute that. We’re not trying to intimidate anyone at all".[26]
"Stirchley welcomes all with love" written in chalk on the pavement at a community anti-racism protest
At an 18 October community event in Stirchley, Birmingham, organised to protest against the raising of the flags, Bridge and Stanley showed up, accompanied by Dale Hurd of the American Christian Broadcasting Network.[27] Police were subsequently called to the event.[21] Raise the Colours claimed on their social media that anti-flag protestors in Stirchley included "agitators from Antifa".[26]
Raise the Colours also posted videos on their social media accounts of members of the group arguing with residents of Harborne, where they had put up flags. The video captions included "lefty gets schooled", "we are not the aggressors" and "Harborne lefties think being patriotic makes you racist". A spokesperson for Harborne Village Business Improvement District told the Birmingham Mail, "The installation of these flags was not authorised by the BID, the city council, or any organisation officially connected with the management of Harborne High Street. We would like to reiterate that Harborne is a welcoming and inclusive place for everyone who lives, works, shops and visits here".[28]
After the flags in Harborne were removed, local councillor Jayne Francis responded, "Thanks to those responsible for removing. 99% of people who contacted me last week were uncomfortable with their presence (and were not asked if they wanted them)".[29]
Anti-immigration stance
Stanley has previously been involved in protests outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Solihull in summer 2025. The pair have appeared several times on GB News and in interviews with the channel, have denied that Raise the Colours campaign is politically motivated, with Stanley describing himself as a patriot and "centrist", not "right wing". "This is nothing to do with far-right movements", the pair told GB News. Stanley has said that anyone characterising the pair's politics otherwise was "putting a target on our backs".[3] Interviewed about his participation in the hotel protests, Stanley said that "I'm talking about people who have paid thousands of pounds to get here and are being put up in a hotel who are here illegally and we don't know who they are. ... I'm not going to be ashamed of going to a protest". An anti-racist campaigner said of Stanley's participation: "This is a political movement, led by people who hate migrants. Now we can see that Elliott Stanley was part of the summer protests aimed at targeting and scapegoating migrants. What people like him refuse to accept is that many people do not hold with their political views and not everyone wants their neighbourhoods covered in flags".[30]
The organisation has put up flags with "Unite the Kingdom" text on – a reference to a rally in London organised by Tommy Robinson – and banners reading "Stop the Boats".[3][22] The group was responsible for unfurling a Union flag with "Unite the Kingdom" written on it over the White Cliffs of Dover in September 2025. The group also let off red and blue flares and held signs that read "Stop the boats" and "RIP Charlie Kirk". Bridge was quoted by the Telegraph as stating: "Regarding Charlie Kirk, he was a patriot of his country, we’re a patriot of ours and he’s got Christian beliefs, we live in a Christian country. We just like the way he stood up for his country so we thought we would pay tribute to him on the day we unveiled the White Cliffs of Dover flags".[31]
Anti-migrant vigilantism
In November 2025, members of Raise the Colours visited Gravelines, on the northern French coast. From there, Bridge filmed content for the organisation's social media pages, in which members of the group waded into the sea, "shouting at migrants boarding dinghies" and "speak[ing] in soundbites about the 'hundreds of thousands of undocumented men' committing 'murders', 'gang rapes' and the 'indigenous white population' being 'replaced in our own country'".[32] The group called for volunteers to help with vigilante action against migrants, stating: "Our country is doing nothing. Weak government, weaker borders. They are doing nothing so we need to make a stand boys". This call included reference to "firms", which The i Paper explained is "a phrase that refers to football hooligan groups". Other clips "showed two men saying they were taking matters of illegal migration into their own hands and filming themselves stamping on and smashing a small boat’s engine".[33][34]
Bridge appears in some of the videos with Tommy Robinson associate and convicted kidnapper Danny "Tommo" Thomas.[32][35][36] Bridge and Thomas subsequently travelled to Paris, where they filmed themselves harassing homeless migrants sleeping on the streets, posting the videos on the Raise the Colours social media pages. According to The i Paper, in the videos "the men repeat several claims commonly used by the far right, such as saying that migrants entering the UK illegally are all 'rapists and murderers… coming to a town near you'". In one video, filmed from their car, the pair "accuse one of the migrants of holding a knife – despite his hands being empty – and make him stand back from the car window". The men also made "a number of unsubstantiated claims and conspiracies informed by their short time in France, including stating gangs are not involved in the movement of migrants over the English Channel". A researcher from Hope Not Hate responded to the footage by saying: “Their behaviour normalises the idea that it is acceptable to approach black and brown people and question them on their residential status, or their travel plans, in the name of ‘patriotism’. The fact that they are not only doing these things themselves, but actively encouraging others to do the same, is very concerning".[37]
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