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		</div><p>London mayor Sadiq Khan has accused Home Secretary Priti Patel of political point-scoring over the boarding up of a statue of Winston Churchill.</p>
<p>Ms Patel strongly criticised the move – accusing the mayor of failing to stand up to “<i>thuggery</i>” and demanding Britain’s “<i>national hero</i>” was set free.</p>
<p>However Mr Khan said the decision to protect the statue in Parliament Square – along with the Cenotaph and monuments to Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi – was a “<i>wise</i>” precaution.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">To anyone planning to join <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlackLivesMatter?src=hash&;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BlackLivesMatter</a> protests this weekend: for your safety please stay at home and find a safe way to make your voice heard.</p>
<p>To the extreme far-right groups hijacking this crucial cause: Londoners have no time for your hatred.<a href="https://t.co/fPTj75eHmT">pic.twitter.com/fPTj75eHmT</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) <a href="https://twitter.com/SadiqKhan/status/1271730616174854144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 13, 2020</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Following the toppling last weekend of the statue of the slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol, he said there were fears the London statues could become a “<i>flashpoint for violence</i>” involving extreme far-right protesters.</p>
<p>“<i>She (Ms Patel) needs to see the intelligence that we have seen that the far right are intending to come to central London</i>,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.</p>
<p>“<i>One of their justifications for doing so is to protect these statues but also they are intending to remove statues of people like Nelson Mandela, so I think we have done the wise, precautionary thing.</i></p>
<p><i>“Rather than seeking to make political points out of this, what I hope is that central government would work with regional government and the police to make sure there isn’t violence, vandalism or disorder, or inadvertently the spreading of the virus.</i>”</p>
<p>His comments came as police said that Black Lives Matter protesters expected to converge on the capital on Saturday must disperse by 5pm, in an attempt to avoid a repeat of last weekend’s clashes in the capital.</p>
<p>Earlier, Ms Patel said the decision to board up the statue of Churchill – which was previously daubed with graffiti – was a “sad reflection” on Mr Khan.</p>
<p>“<i>We should free Churchill, a hero of our nation, who fought against fascism and racism in this country and Europe. He has given us the freedom to live our lives the way we do today,</i>” she told the Daily Mail.</p>
<p>“<i>We have seen the desecration of war memorials, which is thoroughly unacceptable. Now we’re seeing a national hero being boarded up</i></p>
<p><i>“I think this is a sad reflection on the mayor of London because had he stood up for the right thing, had he called out the minority who were subversive in a peaceful protest, had he pulled up the thuggery in the right way, we would not be seeing the boarding up of our national hero.</i>”</p>
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