John McDonnell calls Winston Churchill a ‘villain’ for role in miners strikes

John McDonnell was asked to give a one-word answer on whether Churchill was a hero or villain

Shadow chancellor of the exchequer and Labour MP John McDonnell has called Winston Churchill a 'villain' due to his role in the Tonypandy riots in 1910. At a Politico event, McDonnell was asked to give a one-word answer on whether Churchill was a hero or villain. He responded: "Tonypandy - villain". Churchill sent the British army to the South Wales town to deal with violent clashes between coal miners, who were striking due to an industrial dispute with the mine owners for a living wage, and the police forces of Glamorgan and Bristol. Hundreds were injured and one miner was killed after troops were sent in by the then Home Secretary. The Tonypandy riots took place on the evenings of 7 and 8 November 1910 with soldiers arriving on the second day. Conservative MP Nicholas Soames, Churchill's grandson, called McDonnell a 'third-rate, Poundland Lenin' in response to his comments about his grandfather. He told The Telegraph: "I think my grandfather's reputation can withstand a publicity-seeking assault from a third-rate, Poundland Lenin. I don't think it will shake the world." Recently Scottish Green Party MP Ross Greer called Churchill a 'white supremacist mass murderer', referencing the diverted food imports Churchill took away from Bengal during a mass famine, resulting in the death of millions of people through starvation. Churchill also played a role in bringing about the massacre of 28 civilians on the streets of Athens in 1944 and turning against the British Army on the ELAS (Greek People’s Liberation Army) and EAM (National Liberation Front), groups who had fought alongside Britain against the Nazis in the country. Fearing that communist influence in the country had grown strong enough to foil his own plan to return the country to a royalist dictatorship, he switched allegiances to the support far-right forces, leading to the Greek Civil War in 1946. Churchill was voted greatest Briton in a poll conducted by the BBC in 2002.