Winston Churchill memorial defaced with 'was a racist' during London Black Lives Matter protest

  • london
  • June 7, 2020
  • Comments Off on Winston Churchill memorial defaced with 'was a racist' during London Black Lives Matter protest
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The memorial to Winston Churchill in Westminster has been defaced during London’s Black Lives Matter protests.

Demonstrators scrawled “was a racist” on the statue of the wartime British Prime Minister in Parliament Square this afternoon as thousands descended on London for another protest over George Floyd’s death.

Activists surrounded the monument and jeered “Churchill was a racist”, despite others intervening to protect it from further defacement.

The same statue was also defaced with green graffiti during a huge anti-racism rally on Saturday, the 76th anniversary of D-Day.

It prompted Piers Morgan to tweet: “Memo to protesters in Westminster today: defacing Sir Winston Churchill’s statue on the 76th anniversary of D-Day is not a good way to make your point.”

The statue sits in Parliament Square, Westminster (Getty Images)

Images on social media also showed a poster titled “a taste of the real Churchill” with a list of quotes stuck to the memorial.

Thousands flooded the streets outside London’s US Embassy this afternoon for another Black Lives Matter rally, alongside rallies Manchester, Edinburgh and Bristol were among the other UK cities.

In Bristol, a statue honouring the 17th century slave trader Edward Colston was torn down by protesters this afternoon.

A group then threw the toppled statue into Bristol harbour to huge cheers as crowds watched on.

Statue of Edward Colston pulled down in Bristol

Home Secretary Priti Patel condemned the “disgraceful” act of “sheer vandalism and disorder” and called for a full investigation.

Avon and Somerset Police confirmed they have launched a probe to identify “a small group of people who clearly committed an act of criminal damage”.

The Standard has contacted Scotland Yard for comment on the Churchill statue.