A man has been arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage after a statue of Winston Churchill was defaced overnight.
The monument in Parliament Square was covered with red paint and slogans reading “Zionist war criminal”.
Phrases including “stop the genocide now”, “globalise the intifada”, and “free Palestine” were also sprayed onto the bronze statue.
The words “groetjes uit den Haag,” which translate to “greetings from The Hague” in Dutch, were also scrawled on the monument.
Cleaners were seen washing away the paint this morning, and the statue has been cordoned off from public access.
A Met Police spokesperson said: “Shortly after 04:00hrs on Friday, 27 February 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.”
Last December both the Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police announced anyone chanting the controversial slogan "globalise the intifada" would face arrest.
The decision by the two police forces came in the wake of the Bondi Beach terror attack, and the terror attack at Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester on October 2.
The defacement of Churchill’s statue has sparked outrage online, with users calling it “awful” and “disgusting”.
“No other western leader has done more for democracy than Sir Winston Churchill, including this Country. Absolutely shocking, plus it’s not the first or will be the last time,” one person wrote.
The former prime minister's statue has been vandalised several times in the past, including during protests.
It was scrawled with graffiti accusing Sir Winston of being a racist in June 2020 during a Black Lives Matter protest triggered by the death of George Floyd in the US.
Later that year, in October, 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-tall 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 on or around Parliament Square, most of well-known statesmen such as Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela.
This is a developing story, more to follow.
