Man charged after Big Ben clock tower incident

A 29-year-old man has been charged after climbing onto the clock tower of Big Ben, Metropolitan Police said.

Transcript

00:00So, it was an eventful and high-profile weekend here in Parliament Square. After a Saturday

00:12of pro-Palestine protests, 29-year-old Daniel Day of Palmerston Road in Westcliffe-on-Sea

00:20in Essex has been charged with intentionally or recklessly causing a public nuisance and

00:27trespassing on a protected site. Day is accused of scaling Elizabeth Tower, that is of course

00:33the tower famous for holding Big Ben behind me, barefoot at around 7.20am on Saturday

00:39and came down just after midnight on Sunday. Allegedly, Day spent more than 16 hours barefoot

00:47and holding a Palestine flag while perched on the clock tower of Big Ben before being

00:55lifted to the ground in a cherry picker in a video posted on Instagram on Saturday evening.

01:02The man told negotiators from the ledge he was sat on that he would come down on his

01:08own terms. Videos posted to social media on Saturday allegedly showed the man climbing

01:16over a security fence near the Houses of Parliament without being approached by security forces.

01:24Serious concerns over security at Parliament have been raised since this weekend. I might

01:32add that only a few months ago it was revealed Russian diplomats managed to access a private

01:39area of Parliament.