THE Tory government is facing widespread ridicule over its plans to fly more Union Jack flags in a bid to “unite” the nation and discourage Scottish independence.

New guidance published this week requires that the flag be flown outside all UK government buildings every day.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said that the gesture would be a “proud reminder of our history and the ties that bind us,” spuriously claiming that “people rightly expect it to be flown above UK government buildings.”

Green Party peer Natalie Bennett described the guidance as something “straight out of the Trump playbook.”

SNP MP Mhairi Black wondered whether the scheme had been inspired by the blundering political strategists of BBC comedy series The Thick of It. She accused the Tories of obsessing about “flags and symbols” because they have “nothing positive to say and no credible policies.”

As ridicule mounted, the hashtags #FlagShaggers and #FlagShagging became widespread on social media, with many people calling for the idea to be scrapped. 

Ms Black added: “If the Tories think an overload of Union Jacks on buildings is the answer to promote the strength of the union, then it shows how thin the case for the union is.

“Flags won’t undo the poverty and hardship the Tories have created over the last decade.”

On Twitter, the new Northern Independence Party said : “A government that needs to spend taxpayer money on public relations in the form of Union Jack flags and Deloitte is a failed government.”

The flag-flying decision came after BBC News presenters Charlie Stayt and Naga Munchetty were censured for joking about the unusually large size of Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick’s Union Jack during an interview last week.