A 38-year-old man has been arrested after the statue of Winston Churchill outside the Houses of Parliament was defaced with graffiti describing the wartime leader as a “Zionist war criminal”.
The bronze monument in Parliament Square was sprayed with red paint in the early hours of Friday morning. Other phrases, including “stop the genocide” and “free Palestine”, were also written on the statue’s plinth.
The Metropolitan Police said the suspect was detained on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage.
A Met spokesperson said: “Shortly after 4am 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.”
The incident comes amid heightened tensions around protests linked to the conflict in Gaza and policing of certain slogans.
Last December, the Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police announced that anyone chanting “globalise the intifada” would face arrest. The move followed two terror attacks, including one at Bondi Beach in Australia and another at Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester on 2 October.
The statue of Churchill has been vandalised several times in recent years. In June 2020, during a Black Lives Matter protest following the death of George Floyd in the United States, the monument was daubed with graffiti accusing Churchill of being a racist.
Later that year, an Extinction Rebellion activist was ordered to pay more than £1,500 after painting the word “racist” on the statue’s plinth during a climate demonstration.
The 3.6-metre sculpture was created by Ivor Roberts-Jones and unveiled in 1973 by Churchill’s widow, Clementine Churchill. It stands among 12 statues in and around Parliament Square, including memorials to figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela.