Labour peer Thangam Debbonaire has called for the removal of the statue of Robert Clive, known as Clive of India, from its prominent position outside the Foreign Office in London. She argued that Indian visitors and dignitaries should not have to walk past the 'historically inaccurate' bronze.
Debbonaire, a former shadow culture secretary, said the statue presents Clive in a victorious mode and fails to honestly depict the impact of colonial rule on India. She described the statue as unhelpful for visitors of Indian origin and stated that it does not present Britain in a good light in the 21st century.
The statue, completed in 1912 by sculptor John Tweed, shows Clive in formal dress with his hand on his sword. The inscription simply declares him as Clive. Debbonaire criticised the lack of context, noting that Clive extracted a vast fortune from India and that his former home, Powis Castle in Wales, contains hundreds of objects he took.
Debbonaire, who was a Bristol MP when the statue of slave trader Edward Colston was toppled in 2020, suggested that the Clive statue could be placed in a museum with contextual explanations, as was done with the Colston statue. She stressed the importance of honesty about historical figures and their actions.
