Black Lives Matter: Boris Johnson says protests have been hijacked

It is "absurd and wrong" that a statue of Winston Churchill has been covered up to prevent it from being damaged, the prime minister has suggested.

Boris Johnson said he understood why people felt outraged by the death of George Floyd, but that protests had been hijacked by a minority "using them as a pretext to attack the police, to cause violence and to cause damage to public property".

A number of statues and monuments have been removed or boarded up to protect them during Black Lives Matter protests.

Read more: Johnson: Protests threat to Churchill statue shameful