It later came to light that was the result of pressure from the government. Various cabinet ministers were quick to leap to the defence of monuments to slavers. When Colston’s statue fell, home secretary Priti Patel denounced the action as “utterly disgraceful” while Boris Johnson argued Black Lives Matter had been “subverted by thuggery”.
In July it was revealed that culture secretary Oliver Dowden had been in contact with the Museum of the Home to demand Geffrye’s statue stayed up irrespective of the will of the public, bolstering his argument with the barely hidden threat that the museum was “a government-funded organisation”.