Jolie’s Churchill painting fetches £8m at auction

A wartime painting by Sir Winston Churchill has sold for £8,285,000 at auction.

The landscape, titled Tower Of The Koutoubia Mosque, is thought to be the only painting the former prime minister did as he led the country through the Second World War.

The 1943 work was sold by the actress Angelina Jolie on Monday at Christie's auction house, which said the price is a new record for a painting by the late politician. It was gifted by Sir Winston, who was a keen painter, to then US president Franklin D Roosevelt, as a memento of the men's visit to the mosque following the Casablanca Conference of 1943, according to Christie's.

It had been estimated to fetch between £1.5 million and £2.5m.

Christie's previously said Sir Winston created around 45 paintings depicting Moroccan landscapes after he was encouraged to visit the country by his art tutor Sir John Lavery in the 1930s.

The owner of Pontins has entered into a legal agreement with the human rights watchdog after a whistleblower revealed it was using an “undesirable guests” list to exclude Gypsies and Travellers.

Britannia Jinky Jersey Limited is working with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to prevent racial discrimination after a Pontins employee said the holiday park company was operating a discriminatory bookings policy.

The EHRC verified the claims and said practices included a list of Irish surnames published on its intranet page, with staff required to block potential customers with those names from booking.

It said staff monitored calls and refused or cancelled bookings made by people with an Irish accent or surname, and Pontins' commercial vehicle policy excluded Gypsies and Travellers from its holiday parks,breaching the 2010 Equality Act.