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Joe Biden removes Winston Churchill's bust from Oval Office; Johnson unconcerned

WION Web Team
New Delhi, Delhi, IndiaUpdated: Jan 22, 2021, 05:24 PM IST
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Photograph:(AFP)

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Biden, who was sworn in as the President of the US on January 20, removed Churchill's bust and replaced it with civil rights movement's heroes Rosa Park, Martin Luther King Jr., among others

US President Joe Biden's decision to remove the bust of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill has not generated angry reactions from the Downing Street who said it's up to the president's "wishes" of how he decorates the Oval Office. 

Biden, who was sworn in as the President of the US on January 20, removed Churchill's bust and replaced it with civil rights movement's heroes Rosa Park, Martin Luther King Jr., among others. 

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 The redesigning of the Oval Office also saw the busts of Eleanor Roosevelt and Latino civil rights leader Cesar Chavez. 

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's official spokesman said the removal of Churchill's bust is up to the "wishes" of Biden, adding that the UK doesn't doubt the "importance" Biden places on the relationship between the US and the UK. 

"The Oval Office is the president's private office, and it's up to the president to decorate it as he wishes," the spokesman said. 

"We're in no doubt about the importance President Biden places on the UK-US relationship, and the prime minister looks forward to having that close relationship with him."

Johnson's tepid response is in sharp contrast with how he reacted when a similar thing was done by former President Barack Obama. 

The UK PM in 2016 said Obama's move is a "snub" and called it "the part-Kenyan president's ancestral dislike of the British empire".