Police have charged a man after a protester scaled Big Ben’s Elizabeth Tower at the Palace of Westminster in central London on Saturday.

Daniel Day, 29, of Palmerston Road, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, has been charged with causing a public nuisance and trespassing on a protected site after climbing onto the clock tower, the Metropolitan Police said.

Emergency services were called at 07:24 GMT on Saturday to reports of a protester who had climbed up the tower holding a Palestinian flag.

The barefoot man was brought down in a cherry picker as Big Ben struck midnight, after more than 16 hours on a ledge several metres up the tower.