07-05-2025
Protesters who climb Churchill statue to be threatened with jail
Protesters who climb on Winston Churchill's statue in London could face up to three months in jail.
Under new laws, desecrating the bronze sculpture of Britain's wartime leader could also land offenders with a fine of up to £1,000.
Despite not being classified as one of the UK's war memorials, new plans will see the 12ft figure protected by the Crime and Policing Bill.
Sir Keir Starmer said: 'Sir Winston Churchill stands at the summit of our country's greatest heroes, and has been an inspiration to every prime minister that has followed him.
'The justifiable fury that is provoked when people use his statue as a platform for their protests speaks to the deep and enduring love that all decent British people have for Sir Winston.
'It is the least we owe him, and the rest of the greatest generation, to make those acts criminal.'
Standing in Parliament Square at the location he supposedly picked, the statue was unveiled by Clementine, his widow, at a ceremony in 1973.
It will now join the Cenotaph in Whitehall, the Royal Artillery Memorial in Hyde Park and many other famous structures across Britain, in having protected status in a move made to commemorate the Armed Forces in the First and Second World Wars.
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, said of the decision: 'As the country comes together to celebrate VE Day, it is only right that we ensure Winston Churchill's statue is treated with the respect and reverence it deserves, along with the other sacred war memorials around our country.'
Churchill's statue has been a regular target for demonstrators in recent years.
During Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, protestors sprayed the statue with graffiti, crossing out his name and writing 'was a racist' on the plinth.
In October last year, his statue was protected by a ring of steel barriers as far-Right demonstrators clashed with an anti-fascist counter-protest.
Trans rights activists climbed on it last month while waving placards and flags from its plinth in protest against the Supreme Court's ruling on the legal definition of a woman.
Churchill's legacy has been revised in recent years, with some academics and activists arguing that he was a racist imperialist who was responsible for the Bengal famine.
It was reported drawings, prints and photographs of the Second World War leader had been removed from Parliament in February, following the arrival of new MPs in Westminster.
