BRITAIN First’s leader is at the Cenotaph in London with the Democratic Football Lads Alliance to protest a Black Lives Matter demonstration and “guard our monuments”.

London mayor Sadiq Khan boarded up the statues of Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela and the Cenotaph ahead of today’s protest – last week the former PM’s memorial was vandalised with “Churchill was a racist” graffiti.

Home Secretary Priti Patel and Khan urged people today not to attend demonstrations in the capital as coronavirus guidelines restrict mass gatherings.

It is the second weekend in a row of Black Lives Matter protests, which have taken place all over the world in response to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.

However, the official Black Lives Matter protest was called off amid fears of attacks by far-right demonstrators.

Khan decided to board memorials up this weekend after he received intelligence that right-wing activists were intent on confronting anti-racist protesters today and planned to use any attacks on statues to spark “vandalism, violence and disorder”.

A clip of the Democratic Football Lads Alliance singing God Save the Queen as they stand in front of the Cenotaph was posted to Twitter by journalist Oli Dugmore.

According to reports there are about 150 people at Parliament Square to “guard” the statues and monuments there.

There were also clips of protesters giving Nazi salutes close to the police cordon.

And Dugmore shared footage of protesters laughing as a photographer with a bloodied face was led away by medics.

This morning Britain First leader Paul Golding said: "Anyone who comes along today to try and vandalise them will probably be dealt with by all of these Englishmen that turned up, and they're fed up as well."

When he was asked about other statues in the square including one of Nelson Mandela he said: "Why should we have a communist terrorist mass murderer in the capital city of England? It doesn't make any sense.

"We would like to see that one go, on good grounds, but the rest of them are our historical heritage."

Asked why protesters had gathered during the Covid-19 pandemic he referenced the BLM protests across the UK that have already taken place.

He said: “If it’s good for one, it’s good for the other.”