The statue of a slave owner removed following Black Lives Matter protests should be on display, according to a public poll that rejected placing the monument in storage.

       Robert Milligan’s statue was removed from its plinth outside the Museum of London Docklands in June 2020 to “recognise the wishes of the community”.

       After a consultation on the future of the statue, members of the public backed the an option which would see it removed from storage and put on display, with the proposal to “present it in an exhibition about the slave trade” the most popular choice.

       The only other options open to the public in the two-month public consultation run by Tower Hamlets Council were to “keep it permanently out of public view” or to “store it in the Museum of London Docklands”.

       The Canal and River Trust, which owns the land where Milligan’s statue stood, has indicated that redisplay was the most popular choice, and the organisation is discussing the monument's future with the museum and local council.

       A Museum of London spokeswoman said discussions were ongoing, adding: “A public consultation was completed and the results are being considered.”

       Born in 1746, Milligan pioneered the development of the West India Docks in London, and was believed to have owned more than 500 slaves on sugar plantations in the Caribbean.

       Four years after his death in 1809, a statue in his honour was erected in the Docklands. It was placed in storage in 1943, then re-erected in 1997.

       Following the toppling of slave trader Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol last year, Milligan’s statue was removed by Tower Hamlets council, with the nearby Museum of London Docklands advocating for its removal “on the grounds of its historical links to colonial violence and exploitation”.