British Cabinet Office to fly rainbow flag for Pride in London

The Cabinet Office has announced that it will fly the rainbow flag this week to celebrate Pride in London.

In a first for central Government, the Cabinet Office flew a rainbow flag to mark World Pride in 2012 in London.

The iconic flag has been flown since for Pride events including Pride in London.

It will be flown all week to celebrate Pride in London parade which will take place this Saturday, 27 June.

Oliver Letwin, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said: “We are delighted to join with the LGBT community in celebrating Pride this weekend, and will be flying our flag at the heart of Whitehall. We have committed to governing one nation, bringing people together and flying the flag this week shows our pride in and solidarity with the LGBT community.”

Minister for the Cabinet Office Matthew Hancock commented: “Civil servants across the country will be joining in the celebrations this week, and flying the flag shows that pride in our LGBT community is shared at the most senior levels of Whitehall.”

The rainbow flag was also flown over Whitehall last year in celebration of the first same-sex marriages which will took place in March.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles and Communities Minister Baroness Stowell also raised the rainbow flag outside the Department for Communities and Local Government in Westminster to mark the historic arrival of equal marriage in England and Wales on 29 March 2014.

Designed in San Francisco in 1978 by Gilbert Baker, the original flag had eight stripes instead of today’s six horizontal stripes of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet.

• Dec 01 2023

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