Council workers remove sign and chains from Francis Drake statue on Plymouth Hoe

Credit: Craig Whyte

A statue of Sir Francis Drake on Plymouth Hoe was covered with chains and a sign saying 'decolonise history' - but council workers were quick to remove the items.

There have been calls for the statue to be removed due to Drake's links to the slave trade.

It comes after protesters tore down the statue of Edward Colston, a slave trader, MP and philanthropist, in Bristol and scores of people joined in support of Black Lives Matter protests across the country.

Plymouth City Council has outlined a series of measures to "condemn" the role that Drake and his cousin Sir John Hawkins - who has a square named after him in Plymouth - played in the slave trade.

The local authority, however, has stopped short of agreeing to the petition's demands for Drake's statue on the Hoe to be removed from public view.

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