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Culture Secretary: The National Trust should 'preserve' our heritage, not criticise Churchill

Former Prime Minister Winston Churchill with wife Clementine Churchill at Chartwell in 1951, a residence in Kent that had a 'sometimes-uncomfortable role that Britain, and Britons, have played in global history', according to the National Trust - Mirrorpix via Getty Images/Mirrorpix via Getty Images
Former Prime Minister Winston Churchill with wife Clementine Churchill at Chartwell in 1951, a residence in Kent that had a 'sometimes-uncomfortable role that Britain, and Britons, have played in global history', according to the National Trust - Mirrorpix via Getty Images/Mirrorpix via Getty Images

The National Trust should be concentrating on "preserving and protecting" heritage and not making wartime leader Winston Churchill the subject of controversy, the Culture Secretary has said.

Oliver Dowden said that the Trust's criticism of Churchill in a review of its links to slavery and colonialism "will surprise and disappoint people".

The news came as Guy Opperman, a senior Tory MP, said the criticism of the politician who was voted the greatest Briton in a 2002 BBC poll risked "legitimising" attacks on Churchill's statue in Parliament Square, which has been twice daubed with graffiti in recent months by leftwing activists.

Mr Dowden made the remarks after National Trust included Churchill’s family home in a 115-page report which reviewed its sites links to “colonialism and slavery”.

The review found one third of its protected sites had ties to the “sometimes-uncomfortable role that Britain, and Britons, have played in global history”.

Churchill’s Chartwell residence (pictured below) in Kent – where he lived from 1922 until his death in 1965 – was given as an example, with the wartime leader’s home highlighted alongside those of profiteers and slavers.

England, Kent, Westerham, Chartwell, Home of Winston Churchill. (Photo by: Prisma Bildagentur/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) - Prisma Bildagentur/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
England, Kent, Westerham, Chartwell, Home of Winston Churchill. (Photo by: Prisma Bildagentur/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) - Prisma Bildagentur/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The review noted that Churchill "served as Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1921 to 1922. He was Prime Minister during the devastating Bengal Famine of 1943, the British response to which has been heavily criticised".

The famine killed around two million people.

The report continued: "Churchill opposed the Government of India Act in 1935, which granted India a degree of selfgovernance. On 1 July 1947, he wrote to Prime Minister Clement Attlee (1883–1967), arguing that 'India should not gain independence'."

It added: "Leading historians, such as Robert Rhodes James, comment that Churchill lived an ‘exceptionally long, complex, and controversial life’."

The criticism of Churchill was given short shrift by Mr Dowden, who told the Telegraph: "Our national institutions like the National Trust should be preserving and protecting our heritage for future generations to learn from.

"Churchill is one of Britain’s greatest heroes. He rallied the free world to defeat fascism. It will surprise and disappoint people that the National Trust appears to be making him a subject of criticism and controversy.

Mr Opperman added that the "vast majority of the trust's members" would not think that it is appropriate "to be tarnishing Churchill's reputation".

He said: "It is very disappointing that the National Trust is effectively legitimising attacks on Churchill. This is manifestly wrong and not part of its mission statement or what it was created to do. My hope would be that the National Trust realises that the direction of travel is clearly wrong."

Andrew Roberts, one of Churchill's biographers, added: "The National Trust's latest excursion into wokery, the latest of many, is to draw up a blacklist of its properties that are connected to colonialism and slavery, mixing the two very separate things up, and putting Chartwell on it."

A National Trust spokesman said: "The National Trust has made a commitment to research, interpret and share the histories of slavery and the legacies of colonialism at the places we care for.

"We believe that only by honestly and openly acknowledging and sharing those stories can we do justice to the true complexity of the past, and the role that Britain, and Britons, have played in global history.

"The report features a large number of connections and individuals with links to colonialism and slavery, from those who campaigned for the abolition of slavery to those in political power during its administration.

"The report does not make judgements about people or the places in our care but makes clear the deep and wide ranging connections of colonialism and historic slavery across the centuries at our houses."

Defending the report earlier this week, John Orna-Ornstein, the trust’s director of culture and engagement, said: “These histories are sometimes very painful and difficult to consider.

"They make us question our assumptions about the past, and yet they can also deepen and enrich our understanding of our economic status, our remarkable built heritage and the art, objects, places and spaces we have today and look after for future generations.”