A man has been arrested after spending more than 16 hours barefoot and holding a Palestine flag while perched on the clock tower of Big Ben, raising concerns over MPs security when in the House of Commons.
The man scaled the Elizabeth Tower on Saturday morning and came down just after midnight on Sunday, with images from the scene showing the man being lifted to the ground in a cherry picker.
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.
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.
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.
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