Thousands sign petition calling for Confederate statues to be replaced with Britney Spears

A petition has been launched in Louisiana to replace Confederate statues in the US state with local superstar Britney Spears. The future of Confederate statues across the US is in doubt with states pulling them down in various towns and cities.

But in Louisiana, more than 3,000 people have now signed a petition calling for the popstar Britney Spears to be honoured with her own statue. Spears, who sold millions of singles and albums worldwide, was born in Mississippi but raised in Kentwood, Louisiana.

The petition on Change.org says: "Not only has Britney proven her talent, but she's proven her strength of character by not only overcoming highly publicised mental breakdown, but by continuously working towards improving herself. She's an inspiration to millions."

According to the petition, Spears raised raised $585,000 for charity in 2006 with the bulk of the sums going towards relief programmes in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

She also teamed up with the Red Cross and chatshow host Ellen DeGeneres to raise $250,000 for victims of the 2016 Louisiana flooding.

The organisers say that officials should "replace the Confederate statues with an actual Louisiana hero and influential human being, Britney Spears".

It comes after a violent protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, that initially started off as a rally against the removal of a Confederate statue.

The rally, which involved a large number of white supremacists and neo-Nazis, clashed with counter-protesters and eventually lead to the death of a woman when one neo-Nazi ploughed his car into an opposition crowd.

Donald Trump criticised those who wanted to pull down the statues saying that they are "weak, weak people. They're trying to take away our culture. They're trying to take away our history."

Vice President Mike Pence agreed, saying that instead of removing statues, more should be erected: "We ought to be celebrating the men and women who have helped our nation move towards a more perfect union and tell the whole story of America."