EXCLUSIVE: British universities must display the EU flag or risk fines under Labour’s costly Erasmus deal, with Burnham urged to tear up the Brexit surrender.

EU flag must appear on British campuses or else (Image: Getty)
Labour’s EU surrender could land British universities with fines if they fail to display the EU flag, campaigners have claimed. Brussels rules attached to the costly Erasmus scheme would mandate showing the Flag of Europe, or risk institutions having their funding docked by the bloc.

Now campaigners are demanding Andy Burnham tear up the deal, fearing the Labour frontrunner could finish the job on a Brexit sellout. A dossier seen by this paper shows Ministers have admitted universities signing up to the scheme must follow Eurocratic “publicity requirements”.

The Daily Express can reveal Education Minister Josh MacAlister said British institutions joining the scheme will need “to follow the provisions” set by the EU.

When challenged by Tory MPs on what would happen to those who defied the rules, the Minister revealed that non-compliance would “result in action”.

Such punishments could even include “a reduction of the grant amount”, he conceded in a series of written parliamentary answers.

Westminster insiders pointed to older versions of the scheme which once saw EU-funded British institutions fined over the flag.

One such case in 2011 saw the National Museum of Labour History hit with a £7,223 fine for failing to display the EU logo.

The museum had not daubed the Brussels emblem on a billboard for an EU-backed project, with Commissioners docking the cash as a result.

Mr Burnham, the frontrunner to replace Sir Keir Starmer in No10, a long-standing Remainer, is facing calls to tear up the scheme.

Yet Brexiteers fear the man tipped to take the keys to Downing Street could go further still and reverse Brexit by stealth.

Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Alex Burghart warned the incoming favourite against signing Britain up at any cost.

He said: “Erasmus is drastically more expensive than the Turing scheme set up by the previous Conservative Government and benefits a lot less British students.”

Mr Burghart added: “Burnham should not join Erasmus at any price or look to reignite long settled debates.”

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But the Government has flatly rejected the claim that any school, college or university will be forced to physically fly the EU flag.

A government spokesperson said: “This is not true. No school, college or university will have to fly an EU flag, nor will teachers have to teach about the benefits of the single market.”

The spokesperson added: “The law is clear that schools must remain politically impartial, and rejoining Erasmus does not change this.”

But the Department did confirm that beneficiaries would need to acknowledge EU support, such as by displaying a stamp or logo of the emblem.

Under the bloc’s rules, the EU emblem must be acknowledged on conferences, brochures, posters and social media, as well as infrastructure funded by the grants.

Proposed new regulations would go further, requiring “durable plaques or billboards” carrying the EU flag for any grant over 100,000 euros.

Critics say the threshold would capture virtually every British university, with the rules enforced by the British Council.

The Government is in talks to appoint the British Council, an arm of the Foreign Office, as the scheme’s national agency.

The revelations have ignited Brexiteer fury over the so-called “UK-EU reset”, with critics warning it amounts to propaganda in British classrooms.

Those concerns stem from the UK signing up to the Jean Monnet Actions part of Erasmus, which Brexiteers claim is a propaganda arm of the EU.

A report by the European think tank MCC Brussels panned Jean Monnet as having “the ideological mission of supporting EU institutions”.

It said the actions funded “projects openly aiming to promote EU integration”, fuelling fears over what British pupils could be taught.

But the Government insists Jean Monnet actions make up a very small proportion of the Erasmu