The Churchill statue in Parliament square was vandalised overnight (Image: Getty Images)
A 38-year-old man has been arrested after the statue of Sir Winston Churchill in Westminster was defaced with graffiti overnight. The Metropolitan Police said the man was arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage on Friday morning.
The statue was daubed with phrases including “Stop the Genocide” and “Free Palestine”, sprayed in red paint on the bronze sculpture in Parliament Square, central London. Further graffiti read “Never again is Now” and “Globalise the Intifada”. On the plinth, the sentence “Zionist war criminal” could be seen in snaps taken after the incident.
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The graffiti were being cleaned on Friday morning (Image: Getty Images)
A Met spokesperson said: “Shortly after 4am on Friday February 27 a man was seen spraying graffiti on the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square. The first officers were on the scene within two minutes. The man – who is 38 – was arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage. He remains in custody.”
The statue has been cordoned off and was being cleaned on Friday morning.
A Greater London Authority spokesperson said: “We are appalled by this vandalism to the statue of Sir Winston Churchill and work is under way to remove the graffiti as quickly as possible.”
The former prime minister’s statue has been vandalised several times in the past, including during protests.
Graffiti seemingly accusing him of being a racist was scrawled on the statue in June 2020 during a Black Lives Matter protest triggered by the death of George Floyd in the US.
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The statue was unveiled in 1973 (Image: Getty Images)
In October that year, an Extinction Rebellion activist was ordered to pay more than £1,500 after defacing the statue by painting “racist” on its plinth during a climate protest.
The 12ft monument, created by Ivor Roberts-Jones, was unveiled in 1973 by the former prime minister’s wife Lady Clementine Churchill.
It is one of 12 statues in or around Parliament Square, most of well-known statesmen such as Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela.
Last December the Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police announced that anyone chanting the controversial slogan “globalise the intifada” would face arrest.
The decision came after the Bondi Beach terror attack in Australia, and the attack at Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester on October 2
