Threatened Portsmouth councillor fears for her family's safety after sharing image of vandalised Winston Churchill memorial

Outspoken socialist Claire Udy, leader of the Progressive Portsmouth People Group, claimed to have called the police following a swell of abuse online yesterday.

It comes after a petition was set up ‘calling for her head’ for sharing a controversial image of a Winston Churchill statue that was vandalised in London.

The photo, shared on Cllr Udy’s personal Facebook account, showed a dark line sprayed over Churchill’s name, with the words ‘was a racist’ graffitied underneath.

Almost 400 people have since backed an online campaign calling for action to be taken by Portsmouth City Council.

And the Charles Dickens ward councillor claimed since the petition was shared on social media, she had received a flurry of ‘friend requests’ on Facebook from far-right supporters in Portsmouth – in a move she felt threatened by.

Cllr Udy claimed she had previously faced threats from far-right activists over her support of the LGBT community.

A previous encounter prompted her to appeal to Portsmouth City Council’s legal team to remove her home address from her councillor contact page on the authority’s website, she added.

Speaking to The News, the 32-year-old mum said: ‘I’m concerned about my safety because the far-right in Portsmouth are a nasty group of people.

‘I normally don’t phone the police...But I have got kids and I have to phone the police for stuff like this.

‘People are calling for my head.’

Matthew Ainsworth, who set up the petition against Cllr Udy, said she had ‘inflamed’ the Portsmouth community by sharing the defaced monument of the former PM.

He wrote: ‘This is unacceptable. Churchill is rightly seen as a hero of the Second World War and the United Kingdom and brought this country back from the brink in its fight against fascism. This is a shameful slur on his memory.

‘We feel this behaviour is unbecoming of an elected official, especially with Portsmouth being a proud military city with links to Winston Churchill.

‘Those who hold public office should be accountable for their behaviour, especially when their behaviour is offensive to the millions of those who have served the United Kingdom with great distinction across many decades.’

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Churchill was Britain’s enigmatic leader who guided the country through the Second World War against Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.

But he has faced criticism over his view on race.

In 1937, he told the Palestine Royal Commission: ‘I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place.’

The situation comes as amid heightened tensions across the country over a number of protests, set to take place over the weekend.

A demonstration planned for London has seen the statue of Winston Churchill boarded up after it was vandalised earlier this week.

The concern has led to the creation of the Guards of Honour Portsmouth UK, who are preparing to encircle the memorials in Guildhall Square today to protect them from attack.

Similar defensive displays are expected in Chichester and the capital, with a number of veterans expected to be among those guarding cenotaphs.

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