PM: You can’t rewrite history

BRITAIN “cannot pretend to have a different history”, Boris Johnson has said as protesters prepared for more anti-racism demonstrations.

Black Lives Matter scrapped a march from London’s Hyde Park today amid fears of clashes with far-right activists, and urged supporters to take part in local protests instead.

But there was dismay after the Cenotaph, on Whitehall, and Winston Churchill’s statue, in Westminster, were boarded up to protect them.

The PM said: “The statue of Winston Churchill is a permanent reminder of his achievement in saving this country... from a fascist and racist tyranny.

“Yes, he sometimes expressed opinions that were and are unacceptable to us today, but he was a hero... We cannot now try to edit or censor our past. We cannot pretend to have a different history.”

Road signs in Liverpool’s Penny Lane were vandalised yesterday, following claims it was named after a slave trader. And in Edinburgh, a statue of Robert Dundas was scrawled with the words

“son of slavery”. A monument to Robert the Bruce, near Stirling, was sprayed with “racist king”. A statue of Scout founder Robert Badenpowell was boarded up in Poole, Dorset.

And one of Jamaican playwright and actor Alfred Fagon was attacked with bleach in Bristol.

Last night, BLM protesters were urged to “stay calm” as they marched in London. Hundreds surrounded Nelson’s Column after walking from Hyde Park, as around two dozen police officers watched on.