Boris Johnson has called the boarding up of statues and monuments in London as ‘absurd and shameful’.
Britain’s prime minister took to Twitter to express his anger after the UK’s most prominent statue of Sir Winston Churchill on Parliament Square was encased in a box as protection from violent protestors ahead of a weekend of anticipated disorder.
"It is absurd and shameful that this national monument should today be at risk of attack by violent protestors," he tweeted in a lengthy thread.
He acknowledged the wartime leader expressed opinions that were and are unacceptable today.
But, on the campaigns of anti-racist protestors to remove statues and other monuments honouring slave-traders and imperialist figures after the toppling of a statue of Edward Colston in Bristol, Mr Johnson made it clear he opposed such moves.
"They had different perspectives, different understandings of rights and wrong. But those statues teach us about our past, with all its faults. To tear them down be to lie about our history, and impoverish the education of generations to come."
Despite urging people to stay away from protests this weekend, hundreds of campaigners gathered in Hyde Park this afternoon.
Mr Johnson's comments come as the activists and governments around the world committed to remove statues and monuments that symbolise racism and oppression as support grew for the Black Lives Matter movement. This followed the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Tomorrow’s major Black Lives Matter rally in central London has been cancelled after concerns of clashes with far-right groups who have urged people to head to their local war memorial and statues tomorrow to form a protective cordon.
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