Far-Left thugs fought police, trampled poppies and desecrated London’s Battle of Britain Monument as yesterday’s pro-Palestine march descended into violence.

Agitators climbed on top of the memorial – erected to commemorate the defence of Britain in the early days of the Second World War – and chanted, ‘f*** the police’.

A display of poppy wreaths was kicked apart by the protesters, many from the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), and several people were arrested, including some on suspicion of causing criminal damage.

Yesterday’s protest comes just days after the third anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attacks – in which 1,200 Israeli civilians were murdered and a further 251 taken hostage. The pro-Israel Stop The Hate group staged a counter demonstration along the route.

The trouble started when officers from the Metropolitan Police attempted to arrest people wearing face masks on Victoria Embankment, with a group of RCP supporters scuffling to hold the officers back.

As tempers flared the police detained two protesters on the ground, only for more activists to surround the officers, who drew their batons.

One group of protesters climbed to the top of the monument and spent half an hour banging on the stone-and-bronze structure while they chanted vile insults at the police. Some held signs saying: ‘For Palestine to live, imperialism must die.’

Dozens more activists stood at the base, baying ‘scum, scum, scum’ at the officers attempting to control the crowds.

Others blasted sirens through loudspeakers and shouted ‘tout le monde deteste la police’ (everyone hates the police) – a rallying cry from the recent student riots in France which have seen dozens of officers injured.

The Met arrested 20 people, including a man and a woman said to have been carrying placards supporting the proscribed Palestine Action group.

Six people were detained on suspicion of criminal damage.

When one man was asked, ‘What have you been arrested for?’, he replied, ‘I punched him [a policeman] in the face.’

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, whose father was a Battle of Britain Spitfire ace, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘People who stamp on the memory of the heroes of the past are not fit to be in Britain. The very freedoms they now use to protest, all those freedoms they have now would not exist were it not for those heroes.’

Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy said: ‘There is no word for these people but ‘scum’.’

Clearing up the ruined poppies in the aftermath, Steve Chilcott, 57, said: ‘I think this is disgusting.

‘To see crowds with Communist flags climbing all over it and shouting and screaming is sickening.

‘It’s a huge lack of respect to Britain and our parents and grandparents who fought for freedom they are now enjoying.’

The display of poppies at its base included wreaths laid by members of the Battle of Britain Fighter Association to mark last month’s anniversary of the famous air battle – a crucial victory in the skies above Kent and London.

The demonstration was organised by the Palestine Coalition umbrella group to mark what it calls ‘three years of genocide’ in Gaza.

Last night it claimed that 250,000 protesters had taken to the streets. There were no official figures when the MoS went to press, but the Met had earlier been expecting no more than 10,000.

A Royal British Legion spokesman said: ‘War memorials and wreaths honour the memory of every member of the Armed Forces who has made the ultimate sacrifice, and deserve to be treated with the utmost respect.’