Defacing of statue of Sir Winston Churchill

Susan Hall AM moved, and Alessandro Georgiou AM seconded the following motion:

"This Assembly wishes to condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the appalling desecration of the statue of Sir Winston Churchill in Parliament Square on 27 February 2026.

The immense contribution of Sir Winston Churchill as one of this country's greatest Britons, defending and securing the freedoms we enjoy today, is proudly noted by this Assembly.

The Assembly wishes to condemn the appalling language graffitied onto a statue of great national importance, including: 'Zionist War Criminal', 'Stop The Genocide' and 'Free Palestine'.

While the Assembly wishes to note the arrest of a man on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage by Metropolitan Police Service officers, it is incredibly concerning that this brazen criminality occurred at a symbolic site of national significance that is managed by the Greater London Authority (GLA).

Given this location is one of the most heavily policed parts of both London and the country, sitting directly opposite Parliament and a short distance from the Met's headquarters, the occurrence of this despicable criminality raises a number of broader security concerns.

The Assembly, therefore, calls on the Mayor to:

• Instruct the Metropolitan Police Service to use its resources to protect this site of national importance and ensure this despicable criminality cannot occur again.
• Raise this Assembly's concerns on the security implications of this criminality directly with the Met Commissioner and request that the Commissioner writes to the Assembly to outline how the Met will prevent a similar event happening again in the future.
• Consider how the GLA as the manager of the site can further support the Met.”

Following debate, and upon being put to a vote, the motion was agreed with 17 votes being cast in favour and 3 votes being cast against.