MPs and police have expressed their anger after an image of a man appearing to urinate next to a memorial to PC Keith Palmer emerged amid violent clashes between far-right protesters and police in central London.
Palmer was killed during the 2017 Westminster terror attack after being stabbed by Khalid Masood. The 48-year-old was protecting parliament at the time of the attack.
The memorial to Palmer was unveiled outside of parliament’s Carriage Gates in February 2019.
Tory MP Tobias Ellwood – who gave first aid to the police officer after he was fatally stabbed – said the image of the unnamed man appearing to urinate next to Palmer’s memorial was “abhorrent”.
“Absolute shame on this man,” Ellwood wrote on Twitter.
“Of all the images to emerge over these few testing days I find this one of [the] most abhorrent. Please help identify him.”
Retweeting Ellwood’s comments, Labour’s Jess Phillips wrote: “The man saying this was an actual soldier for our nation who ran towards danger to try to save Keith Palmer, who also served to protect our country.
“The man in the picture claims to care for our country but he is just pissing on us all.”
Home secretary Priti Patel also shared the image on social media, tweeting: “Shameful”.
Senior Tory MP Robert Halfon told the PA news agency that the incident was “just so horrific”.
“I hope they find this individual and lock them up and throw away the key,” he said.
“This is not the kind of country we are. I feel every possible good wish to the family of PC Palmer, who did so much to keep us safe.”
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation Ken Marsh said the man in the image should be sent to prison.
“It’s horrendous,” he told PA. “The man urinating next to Keith Palmer’s memorial is disgusting.
“How can a human being behave like that? I don’t get it, it’s beyond belief.
“A faction of people today only had one intention – to be violent and unlawful, they didn’t come here to protect the statues, it’s just disorder and unruliness.
“I suggest serious custodial sentences in relation to assaults on police and others, criminal damage and urinating next to the memorial of heroes.”
Another Met Police officer tweeted: “I refuse to RT the picture of the moron urinating on the memorial of a colleague killed defending us from a terrorist. Words fail me.”
The incident involving Palmer’s memorial came amid a protest organised by far-right groups, including Britain First, which claimed they wanted to protect statues such as Winston Churchill from vandalism.
But fights erupted in areas near the Houses of Parliament and Trafalgar Square, as demonstrators repeatedly assailed officers with foul-mouthed chants and missiles, smoke grenades and flares.
Shards of glass were strewn along the streets close to the Cenotaph on Whitehall after bottles were thrown at police officers clad in riot gear.