Lord Baden-Powell statue to be torn down over Hitler ties

A statue of Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Scouting movement, is being removed by a local council because it was threatened by people who criticised his “homophobia, racism and enthusiastic support of Hitler”.

The statue was installed in 2008 and faces Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, where the decorated military leader held an experimental camp in 1907 that led to the formation of the Scouting movement the following year.

Topple the Racists, a website published by the Stop Trump Coalition in support of the Black Lives Matter protests, lists the Lord Baden-Powell monument among more than 70 statues across Britain, which they claim pay tribute to slave traders and “racists”.

The website says the Scouts founder, who was born in 1857, “committed atrocities against the