This footage was filmed and produced 2 October 2023.

Ministers will publish new guidance to ensure historic statues which have been subject to removal campaigns are kept in place, Lucy Frazer has said.

The Culture Secretary said she wanted to “retain and explain” those monuments, as she hit out at cancel culture and claimed some Labour politicians were “ashamed” of the UK’s past.

The Victorian-era statue of 17th century merchant and slave trader Edward Colston was toppled into Bristol Harbour in 2020 amid protests related to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Others, including an Oxford college’s statue of British empire-era politician and businessman Cecil Rhodes, have been subject to campaigns for their removal.