Jacob Rees-Mogg has been quoted in a BBC article defending juries after the decision last week to acquit ‘the Colston four’ of criminal damage. The slave trade statue of Edward Colston was thrown in to Bristol’s harbour during a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020.

The MP for North East Somerset said juries are the “great sublime protector of liberties,” but not all of his Conservative MP colleagues agree, with some calling for punishment for those who have committed criminal damage as an unacceptable form of political protest.

Mr Rees-Mogg, Leader of the House of Commons, said he did not think the verdict would put other monuments at risk. He said: “I shall not be going out of here immediately afterwards and drawing a moustache on the statue of Oliver Cromwell.

“Juries must be free to come to decisions that they choose to come to on the facts that are in front of them in relation to a specific case and what they hear from the prosecuting counsel, from the defence counsel and from the judge,” he said.

A bill is currently being scrutinised in the House of Lords that would see a formal process of applying for the removal of statues, plus allowing courts to consider raising sentencing to a maximum of ten years for those causing ‘emotional or wider distress’ caused by damage to public property.

Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, Barrister in the case, stated: “This case demonstrates the fundamental importance of trial by jury. That is because juries represent the collective sense of justice of the community. In this case, they determined that a conviction for the removal of this statue – that glorified a slave trader involved in the enslavement of over 84,000 Black men, women and children as a “most virtuous and wise” man – would not be proportionate.”