Yesterday, protestors at a Black Lives Matter demo in London vandalised the statue of Winston Churchill which stands in Parliament Square. The protestors spray painted Churchill’s stone plinth so it read ‘Churchill was a racist’ and sellotaped a Black Lives Matter sign to the former prime minister – the man who led Britain against the Nazis during the second world war.

In response, several Tory MPs decided to take matters into their own hands to restore the statue today. Taking inspiration from members of the Household Cavalry who scrubbeda memorial clean on Whitehall following protests last week, MPs from the Blue Collar faction of the Conservative party headed to Parliament Square this afternoon, armed with sponges and water to clean the statue. They began cleaning the plinth and had removed a fair amount of the graffiti, but were then asked to stop when a professional cleaner (called Winston) arrived to finish the job.

Lee Anderson, the MP for Ashfield, promised that ‘If they come back, then we’ll be back out next week with our sponges, our bucket, and our water to clean up the mess again.’

Watch here:

Ashfield MP @ashfield_lee says he and fellow Conservative MPs wanted to scrub graffiti off the Churchill statue to send a “strong message” to “thugs and yobbos that are desecrating statues like this.”

They were asked to stop when a professional cleaner called Winston arrived. pic.twitter.com/9AU3ZaxmoP

— Harry Horton (@harry_horton) June 8, 2020