SADIQ Khan has backed taking down statues of slave owners and renaming streets and squares to be more representative of Britain.
The London Mayor has created a new commission to look into pulling down “inappropriate” statues after Black Lives Matter protesters tore down a monument to slaver Edward Colston in Bristol.
Mr Khan told Sky News: “We’ve got to realise that our public realm statues, squares, street names don’t accurately reflect our values, or London, in 2020.
“I don’t condone at all any attacks on our police any disorder or criminal damages.
“What the commission will do is look at diversity in the public realm and the lack of black people who are in statues and the LGBTQ+ community, those who are disabled.
“(The commission will) try and have a city that better reflects London.”
Mr Khan said the recommendations from the new commission would probably be that some statues would have to be pulled down.
He said: “(I would expect) the recommendations of the commission are that some of the statues should be taken down.
“For example some of the slavers whom there are statues of throughout London.
“I suspect the commission may come back and say it’s not appropriate to be memorialising, to be celebrating these people.
“It’s a discussion we should have and it’s really important to bring in diverse voices, we can imagine – there are statues of people who were involved in the Royal African Company in London.
“There are statues of plantation owners and their contribution is solely the money they made through plantations.”
His comments come after Boris Johnson slammed protesters for taking the law into their own hands and pulling down the statue of Edward Colston over the weekend.
The PM said: “(We do not) desecrate public monuments, we have a democracy in this country.
“If you want to change the urban landscape, you can stand for election or vote for someone who will.”
A statue of Winston Churchill was also defaced in the protests in London, labelling the famed former PM a “racist”.
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