Home Secretary Priti Patel has blasted councils that made a “stance” in changing or considering changes to street names following Black Lives Matter demonstrations last year.

A task group was set up at Watford Borough Council in 2020 after the emergence of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and to respond to the "disproportionate" impact Covid-19 has had on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities.

And in a council report, it was also recognised that the BLM movement “highlighted symbols of the past" including street names which memorialise individuals who played a role in the slave trade and British imperialism.

In an interview today with LBC, the home secretary called the protests last year “dreadful,” before slamming how some councils responded to the movement.

Talking about the widespread events last year, she said: “Protesting in the way in which people did last summer was not the right way at all.

“We saw statues being brought down,” she continued, “Some councils making, quite frankly, a stance around statues and street names. There are other ways in which those discussions can take place.”

She also stated in the interview that she did not agree with “taking the knee.”

Read more:

On June 6 last year, around a thousand people gathered at Cassiobury Park to show their support of the Black Lives Matter Movement.

Despite the reference to statues made by the home secretary, there were no reported acts of vandalism or violence during the Watford march, and instead it was declared a peaceful protest.

The Watford task force not ruling out the change of street names is therefore not in reaction to “statues being brought down,” as stated by the home secretary.

Last summer Labour councillor Asif Khan, who sat on the task group, put forward a motion to change several street names which he believed "are named after people who were involved in the slave trade, colonisation and oppression".

The Leggatts ward councillor said in a recent motion that street names, buildings, statues and monuments should "reflect our town and that they do not contain any of the negative history which this town abhors".

Street names listed in the motion, which was passed by councillors at the time, included Imperial Way, Colonial Way, Clive Way and Rhodes Way.

The policy recommended by the task group also looks at naming new streets and buildings to “reflect the rich diversity of the town”.

It was also recommended that the council should commission Watford Museum to develop an education programme based around a new exhibition “which explores the background and history of the town’s road names, including those identified as having negative historic links”.