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Westminster statues vandalised at trans protest

PA Media A bronze statue of a man in World War One military uniform on top of a stone plinth in front of a Whitehall building. The plinth is defaced by graffiti. There are people walking past the statue. PA Media
A statue of South African leader Jan Smuts was targeted by vandals

Several statues in Parliament Square, including one of women's votes campaigner Dame Millicent Fawcett, were vandalised during a protest on Saturday.

Transgender campaigners gathered in front of Parliament to protest against the ruling by the Supreme Court on Wednesday that biological sex defines a woman for the purposes of the Equality Act.

The Metropolitan Police said seven statues were damaged and they are investigating the incidents as criminal damage. No arrests have been made.

A statue of World War One South African leader Jan Smuts was graffitied with the words "trans rights are human rights".

PA Media Close up of a statue of a woman holding up a sign. The sign says courage calls to courage everywhere and it has some graffiti on it. PA Media
Graffiti on the statue of Dame Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square

The Supreme Court ruled that transgender women with a gender recognition certificate can be excluded from single-sex spaces if "proportionate".

The judges unanimously ruled that the terms woman and sex in the 2010 Equality Act "refer to a biological woman and biological sex" rather than "certificated sex".

Protests against the ruling also took place on Saturday in Reading, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The Met said its officers were in the area policing Parliament Square "but did not witness the criminal damage take place as the area was densely populated with thousands of protestors and it was not reported at the time".

It confirmed it is investigating the graffiti as criminal damage and no arrests have been made so far.

Reuters Trans rights protesters with banners, flags and signs surround a statue of a woman holding a sign that says courage calls to courage everywhere. Reuters
The statue of the women's votes campaigner was unveiled in 2018

Ch Supt Stuart Bell, who was leading the policing operation for the protest, said: "It is very disappointing to see damage to seven statues and property in the vicinity of the protest today.

"We support the public's right to protest but criminality like this is completely unacceptable."

The statue of Dame Millicent Fawcett by artist Gillian Wearing is the only statue of a woman in Parliament Square, where others honoured include international statesmen like Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi, and former prime ministers Sir Winston Churchill and David Lloyd-George.

Unveiled in 2018, it is also the only statue by a female artist in the square, and was erected following a campaign and petition by the feminist activist Caroline Criado Perez.

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