A man has been charged after Sir Winston Churchill’s statue in the heart of Westminster was daubed with pro-Palestine graffiti in the early hours of Friday morning.
Caspar San Giorgio, 38, of no fixed address, was arrested shortly after 4am on Friday following the vandalism of the iconic bronze memorial in Parliament Square, the Metropolitan Police said.
He was later charged with criminal damage just before 4am on Saturday and is due to appear at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court this morning.
The statue of Britain’s wartime leader was sprayed with red paint bearing the words “Zionist war criminal”, alongside other slogans including “Stop the Genocide” and “Free Palestine”.
Further messages scrawled across the monument read “Never again is Now” and “Globalise the Intifada”.
Footage appearing to show the vandalism was subsequently shared on social media.
Police said on Friday afternoon that Mr San Giorgio had also been arrested on suspicion of supporting Palestine Action, which is a proscribed organisation.
The attack on the statue, which stands in Parliament Square opposite the Houses of Parliament, prompted swift condemnation from Downing Street and the country.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister said: “It’s obviously a disgrace. It’s completely abhorrent. Churchill was a great Briton. This Government will always stand up for our values, and the perpetrator must be held to account. We’re glad the police have made an arrest.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage claimed the incident was evidence of “sectarianism” spreading across Britain.
Sir Winston Churchill is widely regarded as the central figures in Britain’s stand against Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Appointed Prime Minister in May 1940, at a time when much of Europe had fallen to Adolf Hitler’s forces, he led a coalition government through some of the darkest days in modern British history.
After the fall of France, Churchill rejected calls to seek a negotiated peace and insisted Britain would continue fighting. His speeches to the House of Commons, including his pledge to fight “on the beaches” and his declaration that it was the nation’s “finest hour”, were credited with strengthening public resolve during the Blitz and the threat of invasion.
Churchill worked closely with Allied leaders, helping to build the alliance that ultimately defeated Nazi Germany in 1945. Historians agree that his leadership was instrumental in sustaining Britain’s resistance when it stood largely alone in western Europe.
Churchill’s role in the defeat of fascism and the preservation of parliamentary democracy in Britain remains central to his historical reputation.
