Britain’s wartime leader Winston Churchill should not be on UK £5 bank notes because he was a “racist” and a “white supremacist” according to a Labour Parliamentary candidate.
Benjamin Whittingham – who is standing in the safe Tory seat of Wyre and Preston North – made the comments on Twitter but has now deleted the tweet.
Mr Whittington said: “Bit disappointed Churchill is on the new £5 given he was a racist and white supremacist. Can’t go into the future with a foot in the past.” He was commenting on the introduction of the new plastic £5 note, which will feature Sir Winston Churchill. He will replace the social reformer Elizabeth Fry.
Churchill is the first statesman to feature on a bank note, and he will be pictured alongside a view of Elizabeth Tower (aka Big Ben) showing 3 o’clock – the approximate time on 13 May 1940 when Churchill declared in a speech: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat”. This soundbite is also included under his image.
Sir Winston’s grandson Nicholas Soames MP expressed his outrage at the comment to the MailOnline. He said: “The fact that these views are expressed within the Labour Party is deeply insulting to the memory of our greatest Prime Minister.”
He added: “Ed Miliband must take action against those in his party who hold abhorrent views. If he can’t do that he can never be up to the job of being Prime Minister.”
This is not the first time Whittingham has made choice comments about other political figures. Last month he took to twitter to describe Clacton MP Douglas Carswell as a “dipstick”.
BREAKING NEWS: Douglas Carswell is more of a dipstick than most people originally suspected.
— Benjamin Whittingham (@BKWhittingham) August 28, 2014
His comments come after the Daily Express reported another Labour candidate Vicky Kirby called Adolf Hitler a “Zionist god”.
She is accused of posting a string of offensive messages including: “I will never forget and I will make sure my kids teach their children how evil Israel is!”
So far Whittingham has not been subject to any disciplinary action, raising concerns that Labour agree with his views. Ed Miliband’s father Adolf was a well known critic of the British in WWII despite having been granted Jewish refugee status in London.
The Belgian who styled himself Ralph Miliband once wrote: “The Englishman is a rabid nationalist. They are perhaps the most nationalist people in the world … When you hear the English talk of this war you sometimes almost want them to lose it to show them how things are.”
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