This is not our finest hour, say Tory MPS
Conservatives look to the Government to get a grip as Britain braces itself for a second weekend of unrest
IT WAS almost 80 years ago to the day that Winston Churchill declared in his most famous speech that “we shall fight on the beaches” and concluded with the stirring “we shall never surrender”. But anybody passing through Parliament Square yesterday, under the shadow of the Palace of Westminster, would have seen defeat writ large, the fight gone out of the UK authorities.
The statue in honour of Churchill’s efforts in protecting Britain from the Nazis was hidden from view, encased in a metal tomb for its own safe-keeping.
The Metropolitan Police have imposed a 5pm curfew on today’s demonstrations. The restrictions have been imposed on both Black Lives Matter and “Right-wing” protesters.
Commander Bas Javid urged wouldbe protesters to “reconsider” marching in light of the pandemic. Violence will not be tolerated, he added.
At a Black Lives Matter protest last weekend, an activist spray-painted beneath Churchill’s name “was a racist”. Churchill, who defeated Hitler and fascism, now needs protection from a global civil rights movement that has sprung up out of the brutal slaying of a black man by police in America. Who wouldn’t be confused?
On Thursday night, the scaffolders and construction workers moved into Parliament Square. By yesterday morning he was covered up – so too eight other statues in central London, including Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and Clive of India. The Cenotaph, often a target for anarchists, is now inside a metal box. Around Britain statues are boarded up for their own good: Robert Peel, the former prime minister and father of modern policing, covered up in Tamworth; and Robert Baden-powell, founder of the scouting movement, in Poole, Dorset.
Sadiq Khan, London’s mayor, had three statues under his control, including Churchill’s, covered up in a decision taken on Thursday after two days of talks with the Metropolitan Police.
The weekend threatened a perfect storm of unrest with a Black Lives Matter march confronted by extreme Right wing groups gulping down the oxygen of publicity, promising to come to the capital to protect any historic statues that might come under attack. There was concern that ageing military veterans might also descend on Westminster to form their own human shield around Churchill and the Cenotaph.
Tory MPS were furious: “Churchill’s famous words ‘We will never surrender’ are completely undermined by Mayor Khan’s appeasement of the mob. It’s a national humiliation,” said Andrew Bridgen and called on Mr Khan and Dame Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, to resign.
Tory MP Bob Blackman branded Mr Khan the “do nothing mayor” who had “lost control of our streets”.
Sources close to the mayor insisted he had little choice. He could either have the statues encased or risk them being focal points for violent clashes. In Bristol last weekend, Avon and Somerset police stood by as the statue of Edward Colston was toppled by protesters and rolled into the water. Senior officers feared a riot had they intervened.
Throw into the mix the pandemic and the risk to the Met officers of contracting the virus and the London mayor’s advisers say he and the police had made the only decision available.
Never mind that on Thursday, Black Lives Matter cancelled its planned protest in Hyde Park amid warnings that “many hate groups” were threatening their safety, among them the far-right Democratic Football Lads Alliance.
‘Millions of people all over the world who look up to Britain will be astonished that a statue of Churchill and the Cenotaph could have been defaced in this way’
The mayor said in a statement yesterday: “Extreme far-right groups who advocate hatred and division are planning counter-protests, which means risk of disorder is high.”
Boarding up the statues was the obvious option. English Heritage, a government quango, ordered the Cenotaph and statues of Charles I and George Washington to also be boarded up. Then, in a series of posts on Twitter, the Prime Minister waded into the row. Boris Johnson, whose great role model is Churchill, was appalled. “The statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square is a permanent reminder of his achievement in saving this country – and the whole of Europe – from a fascist and racist tyranny,” he wrote. “It is absurd and shameful that this national monument should today be at risk of attack by violent protesters.”
He said he understood the legitimate concerns of anti-racism demonstrators but said they had been “sadly hijacked by extremists intent on violence”.
Attacks on police – 62 officers in London have been injured so far – “are intolerable and they are abhorrent”.
He stopped short of criticising his successor in City Hall but the comments were seen as a sideswipe.
“Boris is sticking the boot into Sadiq without naming him,” said a source.
The mayor’s team pointed out that under Mr Johnson’s mayoral watch (2008-16), Parliament Square was fenced off from protesters three times.
A section of backbench Tory MPS have been unimpressed by the Government’s handling of a growing crisis. Robert Halfon, the former education minister, posted a message on the Tory MPS’ Whatsapp group calling for Mr Johnson to show some “real leadership”. The message, leaked to The Daily Telegraph, stated: “We should not be in a situation as a country where we have to board up our most famous prime minister because we are afraid of vandalism … While these decisions are not taken by Government, I strongly urge the PM and those in Cabinet to show some real leadership on these matters, be clear that it is wrong and take measures to stop these things happening.” Mr Halfon also called for a “bold social justice agenda” to help BAME communities.
A senior Tory, declining to be named, voiced his concern: “People are feeling there isn’t the leadership. Why isn’t the Government saying this is not acceptable? The fact this is all going on, we have a Conservative majority and they’re doing sweet FA – the Government is saying nothing.”
In an attempt to quell the disquiet at 3pm yesterday afternoon, Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, circulated a letter to Conservative MPS, peers and councillors, outlining “the Government’s view on the heated debate last week about the removal of public monuments”.
“History is ridden with moral complexity,” said Mr Dowden, adding: “In these challenging times, we should champion what unites our communities – across class, colour and creed. Progress does not need to be an enemy of our collective heritage.”
Sir Nicholas Soames, Churchill’s grandson and a former Conservative minister, has been left appalled and distressed.
“This feels like a society that has lost its moral compass,” he said yesterday, “I find it extraordinary that millions of people all over the world who look up to Britain will be astonished that a statue of Churchill and the Cenotaph, our national war memorial, could have been defaced in this disgusting way.
“These people who are marching did not set out to do this but a very, small, extremely explosive group of people who have made a practice of hijacking entirely responsible demonstrations are behaving in an unspeakable and cowardly manner.”
He said it was right that the statue and the Cenotaph be covered up, if that was the police advice, adding: “The idea that the hard Right should stand guard over Churchill’s statue is absolutely repulsive.”
Andrew Roberts, Winston Churchill’s biographer and an eminent historian, said: “He [Churchill] would have hated it. All the way through his life he was at the centre of the fray.”
Scotland Yard had been caught out by the volatility of last Saturday’s demonstrations, in which officers without riot helmets or shields were pelted with bottles and fireworks by some protesters and forced to retreat.
This weekend 30 Public Support Units, each with 24 police officers who have undergone specialist tactical training in public order and riot control and fully kitted out, will be deployed in case of protest.
Commander Javid, brother of Sajid Javid, the former home secretary, said: “We want to send a very clear message to people that crime of any kind is not acceptable and within that people always come first, but property is an important aspect as well.”
These are anxious times and this weekend will be a marker for what happens next. Last Saturday, the masked protester who spray-painted Churchill’s statue declared: “I tagged up the statue because he’s a confirmed racist. He fought the Nazis to protect the Commonwealth from invasion – he didn’t do it for black people or for people of colour or for people of anything. He did it sheerly for colonialism. People will be angry but I’m angry that for many years we have been oppressed.”
There is justifiable anger and the Government recognises that. But how it tackles the next phase of the protests is yet another problem being delivered to Mr Johnson’s overflowing in-tray.