Good Morning Britain co-host Piers Morgan has slammed the boarding up of Winston Churchill's statue in Parliament Square in central London, alleging on his Twitter that the measure “shames Britain”.
“The fact Sir Winston Churchill’s statue has had to be boarded up to stop people vandalising it is disgraceful”, the journalist wrote. “He saved our country from the Nazis - and THIS is how we repay him? Appalling”.
The boarding up of the statue came ahead of new demonstrations as protesters earlier vandalized it with the words “was a racist” amid Black Lives Matter riots last weekend. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that it was “absurd and shameful” to realise that the monument to Churchill, who ran the country from 1940-1945 and again from 1951-1954, was at risk of attack by “violent protesters”.
“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”, Johnson urged.
“Yes, he sometimes expressed opinions that were and are unacceptable to us today, but he was a hero, and he fully deserves his memorial”, the prime minister insisted.
The demolition of statues of slavers across the globe is related to the death of African-American man George Floyd in police detention in Minneapolis on 25 May, which provoked both peaceful protests against racist law enforcement and violent riots across the world.