Major looked into renaming Heathrow after Churchill

JOHN MAJOR considered renaming Heathrow Airport after Sir Winston Churchill, newly released Cabinet papers reveal.

In 1996, the then prime minister received a letter from a friend urging him to give Britain a “feel good factor boost” by replacing the London airport’s “stupid name” with that of the wartime leader.

Declassified files released by the, wrote explaining how he had come up with the idea after reading the 1994 novel Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis De Bernières.

The book is set on the Ionian island of Cephalonia during the island’s occupation by the Nazis and then Greek communists.

Mr Spack explained how characters in the “funny and tragic” novel “pray for salvation” from Churchill, who after World War Two boasted of saving post-war Greece from communism.

Mr Spack wrote: “The point in my writing to you, this is an old hobby horse of mine, but I think it is appropriate timing for you to take such an act and I think would be superb PR.

“New York has Kennedy Airport, Paris has De Gaulle and we have the stupid name of Heathrow! It should be renamed with the name of the greatest

‘It should be renamed with the name of the greatest man of the century … the Winston Churchill Airport’

man of the century, who has no truly great memorial in our country, The Winston Churchill Airport or Churchill Airport.

“I can only see this as a tremendous boost to the ‘feel good factor’ for all of us.”

Mr Major wrote thanking his friend for his “intriguing idea,” adding: “I am looking into this and am grateful to you for raising it.”

His staff contacted Sir George Young, the then transport secretary, to obtain his “personal views on the idea – both on the merits and the practicalities and also on how this might be floated if it seemed worth pursuing.”

The files contained no further mention of the proposal.

Both Mr Spack and the prime minister were on first name terms, with the Mayfair resident ending his letter explaining how he had “heard locally in France” that Mr Major and his wife Norma had had “an amazing time” during their holiday there.

While it is not known how the two men knew one another – they were on first name terms, it is understood the Mayfair resident died in 2012 aged 76.

Shortly after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997, the then leader of the Conservatives, William Hague, added his name to calls for Heathrow to be named in the late princess’s honour.

Lindsay Hoyle, then a Labour backbencher, who was recently appointed Speaker of the Commons, urged airport operators to consider renaming Heathrow “to keep Diana’s name in people’s minds the world over.”