'Elitist and divisive': Bank of England taking Churchill off banknotes
The Bank of England decided to remove Winston Churchill, Alan Turing and Jane Austen from British banknotes after commissioned research concluded these historical figures were “elitist and divisive,” newly obtained documents reveal.
A market research study conducted by Savanta in October 2025 advised central bank officials that such portraits presented “a backward-looking vision of the UK that carries too great a risk of division and controversy”.
Researchers determined that figures including the wartime prime minister, the celebrated codebreaker and the renowned novelist were “contentious and not representative of the UK’s cultural and natural diversity”.
The Savanta study, which gathered views from 119 focus group participants, found that most felt depicting historical figures on currency was “potentially divisive, elitist and disconnected from their own experiences.”
Tagged: World News BACK TO HOMEPAGE