A 38-year-old man has been arrested after the statue of Winston Churchill outside the Houses of Parliament was sprayed with graffiti including the phrases 'Zionist war criminal' and 'free Palestine'. The Metropolitan police said he was detained on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage.
The vandalism occurred in the early hours of Friday 27 February. Officers arrived within two minutes of being called at around 4am. The bronze sculpture in Parliament Square was also marked with slogans such as 'stop the genocide', 'never again is now' and 'globalise the intifada'.
The Met spokesperson confirmed the man remains in custody. Last December, both the Met and Greater Manchester police said that anyone chanting 'globalise the intifada' would face arrest, following two terror attacks at Bondi Beach in Australia and Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester.
The statue has been cordoned off and cleaning work was under way 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.' A No 10 spokesperson called the act 'abhorrent' and said the government would stand up for British values.
This is not the first time the statue has been targeted. In June 2020, during Black Lives Matter protests, it was defaced with graffiti calling Churchill a racist. In October of that year, an Extinction Rebellion activist was ordered to pay over £1,500 after painting 'racist' on its plinth.
