Tim Knox director, of the Sir John Soames Museum described the statue as looking like a “navvy”.

He made the comment on the BBC Today Programme. Knox added the memorial is unsuitable for its location in Tower Hill as this was a site of “spiritual and national resonance” where “queens and saints were martyred.”

Ucatt general secretary Alan Ritchie said: “Knox’s comments are elitist and offensive. It is the kind of class-ridden comments that give art critics a bad name. Thousands of construction workers have lost their lives in building London. Knox clearly would rather that their sacrifice went unrecognised and ignored.”

The statue, which was unveiled in October 2006 and cost £100,000, is a construction worker, loosely based on Michelangelo’s David. The project took four years to come to fruition and won the support of Ken Livingstone Mayor of London, the Greater London Assembly, MPs and the trade union movement.