STORY
An RAC patrol worker has been dismissed for gross misconduct after he was filmed stopping beside a road in Solihull to speak to a friend involved with the Raise the Colours campaign. Abdul Bashir, from Birmingham, had worked for the breakdown company for six years before his dismissal, which followed an internal investigation into the incident on 26 July. The footage showed Mr Bashir, who was wearing RAC uniform, greeting Raise the Colours co-founder Ryan Bridge while flags were being attached to lampposts.
The RAC said the dismissal followed multiple breaches of road traffic law, health and safety requirements and company policy. According to the company, these included stopping a patrol vehicle illegally in a live lane, delaying attendance to a stranded member, standing unsafely between two vehicles and directing a colleague to make an unlawful manoeuvre. The RAC said the safety of its members, employees and other road users was its priority and that the grounds for dismissal had been explained to Mr Bashir following a thorough investigation.
Mr Bashir disputed the company’s account, arguing that the road was quiet, the vehicle’s hazard lights and beacons were operating and he had merely stopped to greet a longstanding friend. He claimed his association with Mr Bridge and Raise the Colours was the real reason for his dismissal, although the RAC maintains that its decision concerned safety, traffic law and company policy. Raise the Colours describes the display of Union and St George’s flags as patriotic, while critics have associated the campaign with anti-immigration and far-right political messaging.