Just 20 per cent of Gen Z-ers admire Churchill

Just a fifth of Britain’s young people view Sir Winston Churchill positively, research suggests. This suggests a major decline in favourability over the past two decades, with the former Prime Minister having been voted the greatest Briton in a nationwide 2002 poll.Close to half-a-million people participated in a survey ranking the country’s 100 most significant individuals 20 years ago.Sir Winston beat the runner-up, engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, by 56,000 votes.Former Northern Ireland Secretary Dr Mo Mowlam told television audiences in the run-up to the vote that ‘if Britain – its eccentricity, its big heartedness, its strength of character – has to be summed up in one person, it has to be Winston Churchill’.More than two decades later, new polling suggests these comments are far from representative of the national mindset. Just 20 per cent of Gen Z-ers admire Churchill 20 years after he was voted greatest Briton. (Image: Getty)Twenty percent of 18-24 year olds say they have a positive view of Sir Winston, according to a new poll commissioned by think tank Policy Exchange.The overall picture is not much brighter, with just 36 percent of the public overall reporting that they view the former PM positively.The greatest level of support came from those over 65, 58 percent of which said their image of Sir Winston was good.Polling suggests seven percent of the public view him negatively.READ MORE: Starmer faces fury from Corbyn allies Sir Winston Churchill. (Image: Getty)Thirty-two percent of respondents said they did not know either way.The polling has prompted historians and commentators to question Sir Winston’s declining favourability.Chris McGovern, Chairman of the Campaign for Real Education who has advised the Department for Education, said past and present governments were partly to blame.DON’T MISS: Hated Brexit deal ‘could shatter UK’ [OPINION] Farage blasts those blaming conflict in Ukraine for inflation [NEWS] Britons blast Tories and Labour who are ‘as bad as each other’ [OPINION] Sir Winston Churchill. (Image: Getty)He, quoted in the Mail on Sunday, said the new polling demonstrated ignorance and ‘a victory for the mob’.Mr McGovern said: ‘The curriculum does not require the teaching of Winston Churchill, or WWI or WWII – that was why I was a dissenting voice.’The number of people who are not sympathetic to Churchill is growing. That represents a victory for history teachers who don’t, on the whole, treat Churchill with any sympathy or support; they don’t regard him as a heroic figure.’If he’s taught at all, it is often in terms of the starvation and hunger in India and his racist views.’The views in the poll are based on ignorance. In the Second World War, he did more than anyone else to save this country.’