The Bank of England spent more than £85,000 on research linked to its decision to remove Sir Winston Churchill and other prominent British figures from future banknotes, it has emerged.
Research commissioned by the Bank indicated that portraits of well-known Britons, including Churchill, Alan Turing and Jane Austen, should give way to wildlife-themed designs.
The findings warned that historical figures may be viewed as ‘elitist and divisive’, while a focus on the past could promote a ‘backward-looking vision of the UK’ and risk causing further division.
A Freedom of Information request found that the Bank spent £63,000 on reaching the decision and supporting its choice of nature as the replacement theme.
Market research consultancy Savanta received £49,000 to conduct focus groups on moving away from depictions of historical figures.
A further £22,500 was spent on public consultations exploring which animals should feature on the planned new banknote series.
The change would bring to an end a tradition that has placed leading Britons alongside the monarch on banknotes for more than half a century.
The proposal triggered a strong backlash. Critics branded it ‘bonkers’, while Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said the Bank was ‘erasing our history’ and called the move ‘a silly thing to do’.
The Bank of England removed Winston Churchill and other celebrated Britons from future banknote plans after research warned that historical figures could be considered ‘elitist and divisive’
British novelist Jane Austen currently appears on the £10 banknote
Mathematician and scientist Alan Turing currently features on the £50 note
Currently, Churchill is depicted on the £5 note, Jane Austen on the £10, J.M.W. Turner on the £20, and Alan Turing on the £50.
In response to the FOI request, the Bank told The Telegraph: ‘Savanta was selected following a competitive evaluation process in which research companies that applied were assessed against a range of criteria, including value for money.’
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It added that during the public consultation stage that ‘no external research or consultancy expenditure’ had been incurred, but it did not record the time staff spent on the project.
The Bank branded the move away from historical figures as a ‘positive evolution’, rather than ‘censorship’ or a ‘cancellation’ of history.
More than 400,000 public votes were cast in a public consultation on a shortlist for the new nature-themed banknotes, which was divided into three categories by a panel of wildlife experts.
The first, mammals, included the bottlenose dolphin, brown hare, European hedgehog, grey seal, pine marten and red fox.
Six birds were also listed: the Atlantic puffin, barn owl, common kingfisher, Eurasian curlew, great spotted woodpecker, and white-tailed eagle.
The final category of amphibians, insects and fish consisted of the Atlantic salmon, basking shark, buff-tailed bumblebee, common frog, Emperor dragonfly and marsh fritillary butterfly.
The public consultation ended in July and Andrew Bailey, the Bank’s governor, is set to make the final decision on which animals will be used by the end of the year.
A spokesperson for the Bank of England previously said: ‘To select the theme for our next series of banknotes, the Bank canvassed a range of opinion through a public consultation last year.
‘This consultation received 44,000 responses and nature had the highest proportion of nominations and was the driver for our decision.
‘This theme also received additional positive feedback in Bank commissioned focus groups that took place once we had the results of the public consultation.’
Historical figures were first introduced on sterling notes more than half a century ago, when William Shakespeare appeared on the £20 note in 1970.
The Bank has previously run into controversy over banknote designs after campaigners complained that too few women had featured in recent years, prior to Jane Austen appearing in 2017.
History has also proved uncomfortable due to links with slavery. In 2021 the Bank removed from display a series of paintings and busts of governors and directors who had connections to the slave trade in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.