Labour backs Priti Patel plan to jail protesters for vandalising war memorials

Government considering proposed legislation that would result in 10-year prison sentences for vandals

Workers build a protective shield around the Cenotaph last week (Getty)

Labour has backed a plan by the government to jail people who deface war memorials and other monuments, the shadow home secretary has said.

Under proposals being considered by the home secretary, Priti Patel, and cabinet colleagues, vandals could face a 10-year prison sentence if convicted.

Gangs of far-right football hooligans mobilised across the country on Saturday to “protect” war memorials from anti-racism protesters, who they mistakenly believed were systematically targeting them.

The new law could also cover some of the statues actually being targeted by Black Lives Matter protesters, the Sunday Telegraph reports.

The legislation would be tabled in the form of a desecration of war memorials bill, which is already said to be backed by over 100 Conservative MPs and is due to be presented to the Commons by two backbenchers.

Asked about the proposals for 10-year prison sentences, the shadow home secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds, told Sky News: “I would support the government in creating a specific offence of protecting war memorials and I would be willing to work with the government on that.”

An identically named private members’ bill was previously introduced in the 2009-2010 session of parliament, but it did not make it into law because parliament was prorogued for that year’s election and the bill could not complete its course.

That bill also had a maximum penalty of 10 years, and defined war memorials as “any physical object created, erected or installed to commemorate those involved in or affected by a conflict or war, including civilians and animals”.

The broad definition could therefore potentially encompass controversial military officers who took part in colonial wars.

Under the previous bill, it would have been an offence to show “an act of disrespect including spitting, urination or defecation”.

The issue has risen up the agenda after a single piece of graffiti reading “BLM” appeared on the cenotaph during a previous Black Lives Matter demonstration last weekend. The cenotaph has also been damaged during previous protests, including the 2010 student demonstrations.

Photographs from Saturday’s right-wing demonstration in Parliament Square showed a protester urinating in the immediate vicinity of a memorial to PC Keith Palmer, who was killed in a 2017 terror attack outside the Palace of Westminster. It is unclear whether PC Palmer’s monument would count as a war memorial under the proposed new law.