Pankhurst statue to stay outside Parliament

Proposals to move a statue of Emmeline Pankhurst, the suffragette, away from Parliament, which had been dubbed an act of “vandalism” of women’s history, have been withdrawn.

The statue in Victoria Tower Gardens was unveiled by Stanley Baldwin, the prime minister, in 1930 and was paid for by suffragettes. The Pankhurst Trust, headed by Sir Neil Thorne, the former Tory MP, had wanted the statue moved to nearby Canning Green, next to one of Abraham Lincoln, until Westminster council said it was unsuitable for the location.