Guy Fawkes Memorial In Paliament 'Should Be Paid For By MPs'

MP Organises 'Whip-Round' To Pay For Westminster Guy Fawkes Memorial
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Guy Fawkes's failed plan to blow up Parliament should be marked with a prominent Westminster plaque, an MP said.

Labour's John Robertson called on MPs to recognise the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot, which was uncovered 406 years ago today.

Fawkes planned to kill King James I, MPs and Lords at the State Opening of Parliament by detonating 36 barrels of gunpowder stashed around the Palace of Westminster.

The only memorial to the plot is an "underwhelming" small metal plaque hidden from the public in a Parliamentary car park.

Mr Robertson, who has tabled a Commons motion demanding proper recognition of the plot, said: "Surely we should be having a whip-round instead for a proper memorial for the time in history we saved our democracy from terrorism.

"It does seem strange that we teach our children the nursery rhyme Remember Remember The Fifth Of November, but on the very location for why we should remember, we seem to have sadly forgotten.

"People will be gathering around bonfires this weekend to remember November 5 as the time we saved our democracy from an act of terrorism - yet at Westminster you wouldn't know this was where it all took place."