Climbing on Winston Churchill statue to become a crime

The government will make it a crime to climb on Winston Churchill's statue in Parliament Square, it will be announced today.

Offenders could face up to three months in prison and a £1,000 fine for desecrating the monument to Britain's wartime leader.

The Churchill statue is not officially classified as one of the UK's war memorials, but Home Secretary Yvette Cooper plans to add it to the list of statues and monuments which it will soon become a criminal offence to climb.

These will include the Cenotaph in Whitehall, the Royal Artillery Memorial in Hyde Park, and many other famous structures across Britain commemorating the service of the armed forces in the First and Second World Wars.