Government will change law to make it harder for left-wing councils to move statues

Save our statues: Government will change law to make it harder for left-wing councils’ ‘revisionist purge’ to move monuments and change street names

  • Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick is set to change law to a formal process  
  • New law will state controversial statues should be explained rather than hidden 
  • He said it was wrong statues were being removed ‘at the hands of the flash mob’ 

The Government is set to change laws to make it harder for left-wing councils to conduct a ‘revisionist purge’ by moving statues and changing road names. 

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick will change the law and make it so that historic monuments cannot be removed without a formal planning process. 

The new law will also state that controversial statues should be explained and contextualised, rather than concealed and therefore protected.  

Mr Jenrick is also trying to stop Labour councils from being able to easily replace street names which are linked to the British Empire. 

The move comes just four days after a London council renamed a road that honoured the hero of Lucknow Sir Major General Henry Havelock after the founder of Sikhism.   

The Government is set to change laws to make it harder for left-wing councils to conduct a ‘revisionist purge’ by moving statues and changing road names. Pictured: Protestors topple a statue of Edward Colston in Bristol 

A section of Havelock Road – named after the military leader who has a statue in Trafalgar Square – was officially renamed Guru Nanak Road in Southall, Ealing, on Monday.

The change of the new road sign has sparked a furious row as critics called it ‘airbrushing history’ and say it is the latest bid to try and erase Britain’s cultural heritage.

General Havelock led the British army to recapture Cawnpore in India during the siege of Lucknow in 1857. 

Mr Jenrick wrote in The Telegraph that it was wrong that statues were being removed ‘at the hands of the flash mob, or by the decree of a cultural committee of town hall militants and woke worthies’.

He added: ‘We live in a country that believes in the rule of law, but when it comes to protecting our heritage, due process has been overridden. That can’t be right.

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick will change the law and make it so that historic monuments cannot be removed without a formal planning process. Pictured: Vandalised Winston Churchill statue in Westminster

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick will change the law and make it so that historic monuments cannot be removed without a formal planning process. Pictured: Vandalised Winston Churchill statue in Westminster 

‘Local people should have the chance to be consulted whether a monument should stand or not.

‘What has stood for generations should be considered thoughtfully, not removed on a whim or at the behest of a baying mob.’

Five parts of legislation and regulations, which are due to be set out on Monday, need to be changed for the results to come into effect.

The new rules, which will protect all of England’s 12,000 statues, are set to apply from March. 

On January 13 councillors in Devon voted to move the statue of a British war hero after officials said it ‘impacts anybody who does not define themselves in binary gender terms’. 

A section of Havelock Road - named after Major General Sir Henry Havelock - was rebranded as Guru Nanak Road in Southall, Ealing, on Monday, sparking a row

A section of Havelock Road – named after Major General Sir Henry Havelock – was rebranded as Guru Nanak Road in Southall, Ealing, on Monday, sparking a row

A council review into the continued appropriateness of the Grade 11 listed bronze statue, which depicts General Sir Redvers Buller, in Exeter, recommended it was relocated due to the army general’s connection to the British Empire. 

The statue triggered public debate following the Black Lives Matter protests partly due to references to colonial campaigns on its plinth, which bears the words ‘he saved Natal’, that ‘sought to advance British imperialist interests in other countries’.

An equality impact assessment undertaken for the review also found the statue would impact anybody who ‘does not define themselves in binary gender terms’.

The Grade 11 listed bronze statue in Exeter, Devon

General Sir Redvers Buller, pictured above

A council review into the continued appropriateness of the Grade 11 listed bronze statue (pictured left), which depicts General Sir Redvers Buller (right), in Exeter, Devon, recommended it was relocated due to the army general’s connection to the British Empire

Councillors in Exeter voted in favour of the report’s findings. It has been estimated that relocation from outside Exeter College will cost a minimum of £25,000.  

Mr Jenrick also plans to enforce new rules which will only allow the name change of a street if a ‘super majority’ of households on the street agrees.     

Lambeth Council has suggested that Nelson’s Row may need to be re-named and Birmingham City Council has been naming new streets ‘Diversity Grove’ and ‘Humanity Close’.

Mr Jenrick said that the country should not try to censor its past and added that doing so is ‘to lie about our history’.