UK police arrest man after Churchill statue sprayed with pro-Palestinian graffiti

A worker pressure washes graffiti off of a statue of Britain’s former Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, in central London on February 27, 2026. Picture: Brook Mitchell A 38-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage, UK police said Friday, after he allegedly sprayed pro-Palestinian graffiti on the Winston Churchill statue in central London. The iconic monument to the wartime British prime minister in Parliament Square “was graffitied with red paint” overnight, the Metropolitan Police said on X.

“Officers were on scene within two minutes of being alerted shortly after 4am (0400 GMT),” the force added. The graffiti, which workers set about cleaning off early Friday, included calling the former leader a “zionist war criminal”. The words “free Palestine” and “stop the genocide” were also sprayed on it.

The Greater London Authority condemned the “vandalism” of the statue, adding that work was underway to remove the graffiti “as quickly as possible”. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Downing Street office called the damage “completely abhorrent” and said it was “glad” police had made an arrest. “Churchill was a great Briton,” a Downing Street spokesman said. “This government will always stand up for our values and the perpetrator must be held to account.”