A statue of wartime codebreaker Alan Turing should be placed on Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth, outgoing Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has suggested.
The plinth currently has no permanent display, and the London mayor’s Fourth Plinth Commission uses it to showcase temporary artistic installations.
Mr Wallace described Dr Turing as “probably the greatest war hero” of the Second World War, adding it would be the “greatest tribute” to the success of someone from the LGBT community.
That would be the greatest tribute to the success of someone from the LGBT community and what they have done in this world— Defence Secretary Ben Wallace
Although Mr Wallace said “Parliament Square” rather than “Trafalgar Square”, a fellow Tory MP suggested he was referring to the latter, based on the context of his wider remarks.
The Defence Secretary was speaking in the Commons as he updated MPs on the Government response to an independent review of the service and experience of LGBT veterans who served in the armed forces between 1967 and 2000 under the ban on homosexuality in the military.
Mr Wallace said: “There is no barrier to the success of gay men and women and what they can achieve in this world.
“Dr Turing was probably the greatest war hero, in my book, of the Second World War. His achievements shortened the war, saved thousands of lives, helped defeat the Nazis.
“And his story is a sad story of a society and how it treated him.”
He added: “If I think what the plinth at… Parliament Square should be full of, the blank plinth, (with) the mayor’s gimmicks or whatever it is every other five minutes, it should be Dr Turing.
“That would be the greatest tribute to the success of someone from the LGBT community and what they have done in this world.”
Conservative MP Anthony Mangnall (Totnes) said: “I absolutely support the Defence Secretary’s campaign to put up a statue of Dr Turing in Trafalgar Square, if that’s what he’s launching.”
Mr Wallace joined Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in apologising for the way LGBT people were treated historically in the armed forces, and was praised across the House for the tone of his statement.
The Defence Secretary said: “The part of the report that talks about institutional homophobia is true. You read it. I was part of that Army.
“I was determined to give this statement today rather than my excellent colleague because I wanted to recognise… I have been part of that thinking… that I deeply regret.”
He added later in response to another question: “If I think of my own experience, being friends with, getting to know men and women from the gay community – which I didn’t really in my childhood and certainly in my service, because it was never talked about – is what has brought me to a position where… I regret voting against gay marriage.”
