The statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square has been defaced with graffiti (Picture: PA)
The statue of Sir Winston Churchill in Westminster has been defaced with graffiti branding the former prime minister a ‘Zionist war criminal’.
Other phrases including ‘Stop the Genocide’ and ‘Free Palestine’ were sprayed in red paint on the bronze sculpture in Parliament Square.
Further graffiti read ‘Never again is Now’ and ‘Globalise the Intifada’.
Police have arrested a 38-year-old man on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage.
The Metropolitan Police said officers were at the scene ‘within two minutes’.
A spokesperson said: ‘Shortly after 4am on Friday, February 27, 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.’
Graffiti branding the former prime minister a ‘Zionist war criminal’ (Picture: PA)
Other phrases including ‘Stop the Genocide’ and ‘Free Palestine’ were sprayed in red paint on the bronze sculpture (Picture: PA)
The statue has been cordoned off and was being cleaned on Friday morning.
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 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.
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