Protective boarding around Churchill statue coming down ahead of Macron’s London visit

Monuments to Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi to remain covered up

The statue of Sir Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, one of several monuments boarded up to protect against potential vandalism, will be uncovered in time for French president Emmanuel Macron’s visit to London.

The statue, along with monuments to Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi, were covered ahead of protests last weekend that saw far-right demonstrators clashing with police as they swarmed near the Palace of Westminster and Trafalgar Square.

The previous weekend, a Black Lives Matter protest sparked by the killing of George Floyd in the US at the hands of the police resulted in the toppling of a statue of a 17th century slave trader in Bristol.

In London, the statue of Churchill daubed with graffiti accusing him of being a racist. The graffiti has since been cleaned off and the statue was covered up to prevent further vandalism.

A spokesman for Sadiq Khan said the boards around the statue will be removed on Wednesday ahead of Mr Macron’s visit on Thursday. However, the boards around the statues of Mandela and Gandhi, which the mayor is also responsible for, will stay in place “under review”.

English Heritage said the coverings around the Cenotaph were taken down on Monday night.

Mr Khan defended his decision to cover Churchill’s statue after facing criticism from the Home Secretary.

Priti Patel told the Daily Mail that Churchill gave the British people “the freedom to live our lives the way we do today”.

“We have seen the desecration of war memorials, which is thoroughly unacceptable,” she said. “Now we’re seeing a national hero being boarded up.”

The prime minister also called for the boards around the statue to be taken down and defended his predecessor against accusations of racism in an article in the Daily Telegraph.

“I will resist with every breath in my body any attempt to remove that statue from Parliament Square, and the sooner his protective shielding comes off the better,” Boris Johnson wrote.

(AP (AP)

The mayor said the decision to board up the statues was a “wise” precaution”, fearing they could become a “flashpoint for violence” involving extreme far-right protesters.

Mr Macron’s visit marks the 80th anniversary of General Charles de Gaulle’s appeal to the French people to resits the German occupation of France during the Second World War.

The French premier will be welcomed to London with a ceremonial Guard of Honour from The Coldstream Guards at Clarence House and a flypast by the RAF’s Red Arrows alongside their French counterparts, La Patrouille de France.

Reporting by PA