Big Ben clock tower incident ends as man comes down

Westminster Police said the man was arrested after reaching the ground.

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A man who scaled the clock tower of Big Ben on Saturday morning came down just after midnight on Sunday, having spent hours barefoot and holding a Palestine flag on the Elizabeth Tower.

Pictures from the scene showed the man being lifted to the ground in a cherry picker.

Westminster Police said the man was arrested after reaching the ground.

In a statement issued just after 1am, the force said: “The man has now been arrested. This has been a protracted incident due to the specifics of where the man was located and the need to ensure the safety of our officers, the individual and the wider public.

“We worked with other agencies including the London Fire Brigade and deployed specialist officers to bring this incident to a close as quickly as possible whilst minimising risk to life.

“We have been in close liaison with the Parliamentary Estate throughout and all roads have been reopened.”

Emergency crews had been at the scene with dozens of uniformed police officers guarding the cordon which extended from Bridge Street to Westminster Bridge.

Two aerial ladder platforms, an incident response unit ambulance, regular ambulances and two fire engines were also present late on Saturday.

The man clung to the decorative stonework on Elizabeth Tower (James Manning/PA)

PA Wire

In a video posted on Instagram on Saturday evening, the man told negotiators from the ledge he was sat on that he would come down “on his own terms”.

In the footage, negotiators on an aerial ladder platform appear to raise concerns about an injury to his foot, saying there is “quite a lot of blood” and that his clothes were not warm enough as temperatures dropped after sunset.

But the man insisted he was safe, saying: “I will come down on my own terms, I have said this. But right now I am saying I am safe.

“If you come towards me you are putting me in danger and I will climb higher.”

In the afternoon, shouts of “Free Palestine” and “You are a hero” could be heard from a small group of supporters behind the police cordon at Victoria Embankment.

In videos posted on social media earlier on Saturday, the man appeared to climb over a fence surrounding the Houses of Parliament without any security guards approaching him.

Negotiators have spoken to the man several times (Jeff Moore/PA)

PA Wire

Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty said on X there needs to be an explanation about how the man got into the parliamentary estate.

He said: “Every day in Parliament I see dozens of armed police officers patrolling Portcullis House and the parliamentary estate. Where were they today?

“On Monday there needs to be a full explanation to MPs and staff as to how this protester was able to evade security so easily.”

Parliamentary tours, which happen on Saturdays when Parliament is sitting and on weekdays during the summer recess, were cancelled.

A parliamentary spokesperson previously said: “We are aware of an incident on the parliamentary estate, which is being handled by the Metropolitan Police, assisted by the London Fire Brigade and the London Ambulance Service.

“Parliament takes security extremely seriously, however we do not comment on the specifics of our security measures or mitigations.”

In 2019, an Extinction Rebellion activist wearing a blond wig was arrested after climbing the scaffolding surrounding the clock tower.

Tree surgeon Ben Atkinson climbed the scaffolding surrounding Big Ben dressed as Boris Johnson – complete with a blond wig, shirt, jacket and tie – and was up Elizabeth Tower for around three and a half hours on October 18 2019, before police managed to get him to come down.

Elsewhere, on Friday night, Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland was vandalised by Pro-Palestine activists in response to the US president’s statements on Gaza.

The golf course in South Ayrshire, owned by Mr Trump, was targeted, with activists painting Gaza Is Not For Sale in three-metre high letters on the lawn, and damaging the greens.

Palestine Action described it as a “direct response to the US administration’s stated intent to ethnically cleanse Gaza”.

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