College ‘trashed’ Churchill, says his grandson
WINSTON CHURCHILL’S grandson has questioned whether a Cambridge University college should continue to benefit from the association with the former prime minister after hosting an event “trashing” his reputation.
Ex-Conservative MP Sir Nicholas Soames said an online event hosted by Churchill College was “idiotically sloppy”.
The former minister said the event on Feb 11 – titled The Racial Consequences of Churchill – marked a “new low in the current vogue for the denigration in general of British history and of Sir Winston Churchill’s memory in particular”. Sir Nicholas, who stood down from the Commons in 2019, accused those who participated of “trashing” the war leader’s reputation and questioned whether the college, home to Churchill’s personal papers and archive, should continue to benefit from the link with his family.
He said: “The college benefits enormously from Churchill’s name. If they traduce it, should they be able to have their cake and eat it?
According to the college’s website, the event promised a “critical reassessment of Churchill’s life and legacy in light of his views on empire and race”.
The event has sparked a row, with Sir Nicholas’ penning a foreword to a Policy Exchange think tank paper coauthored by Andrew Roberts, a Churchillian scholar, looking to counter some of the remarks made at the event.
It is alleged that one of the academics given a platform during the 90-minute debate said the British Empire “was far worse than the Nazis”.