‘Police have done their job’ as man arrested after Big Ben incident – minister

A senior minister has said the “police have done their job” as a man was arrested after spending more than 16 hours perched on the clock tower of Big Ben.

Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden told Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “I think the person’s now down. I understand he’s been arrested.

“It’s an important national building, of course we want to see it protected, but I think the police have done their job and the person’s down, and he’s been arrested.”

The man, who scaled Elizabeth Tower barefoot at around 7.20am on Saturday, finally came down just after midnight on Sunday.

Images from the scene showed the man holding the Palestine flag he had with him on the ledge as he was lifted to the ground in a cherry picker.

At around 1am on Sunday, the Metropolitan Police 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.”

Asked about whether there is in general a nervousness about threats to MPs, Mr McFadden told Sky News: “Yeah, of course.

“In the years that I’ve been in Parliament, two MPs have been killed, one has been fortunate to escape with his life.

“So, I think it’s something that we’re all aware of.”

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.

Mr McFadden said: “We have a very open democracy in this country, where MPs walk around mostly without physical police protection in their constituencies, the advice surgery is still something that we do and we like doing, and we cherish that face-to-face content with constituents, as well as other similar things, like coffee mornings that I do regularly.

“So, it’s really important that we keep that and that MPs are available to the public.”