Bank of England faces backlash over hedgehog replacing Churchill on £5 note
Panellists say the Bank of England has replaced Winston Churchill with a hedgehog and bumblebee on the £5 note, calling it a woke attack on British history.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story.
The Bank of England is facing criticism over a reported decision to replace Winston Churchill on the £5 note with a hedgehog and a bumblebee. A television panel discussed the change, with the host saying Churchill had survived two world wars, led Britain through its darkest hour and helped defeat the Nazis, but was now seen as too elitist and divisive.
The panel said the move followed a public consultation. Kevin Craig, a former Labour councillor, said members of the public had voted on which animal they wanted. Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg said the Bank first claimed the change was for security, but that this had turned out to be a lie. He said focus groups had described Churchill as divisive, and that the later consultation only allowed people to choose among animals, not great figures.
Allister Heath, editor of the Sunday Telegraph, said replacing the greatest ever Prime Minister with a hedgehog was wrong. He called Churchill a British hero and said school children should know who he was. Mr Craig said Churchill had old-fashioned views on colour but was still a national icon, and that he would have left him on the note. Mr Rees-Mogg called the hedgehog 'absurd' and 'insufferably twee', and described the change as a 'full-scale cultural attack on our heritage'. He also said it was a distraction from the Bank's core job of fighting inflation.
The host made facetious suggestions for other figures, including Greta Thunberg, migrants crossing the English Channel and Shamima Begum, asking whether £5 notes had become '£5 wokes'. The panel acknowledged that some mock-up banknotes were used in the segment. The discussion then moved to a separate topic about innocence until proved guilty and police powers.
On screen
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Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, grouped by how many channels reported each one. Select a dot to see the source excerpt.
| Claim |  |
|---|---|
| Only on one channel | |
| The Bank of England cited security for the £5 note change, while a panel disputed that explanation. | |
| The Bank of England replaced Winston Churchill on the £5 note with a hedgehog and a bumblebee. | |
| The public consultation on the £5 note design limited options to animals rather than notable historical figures. | |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
GB News gave the story a strongly critical, anti-woke framing. The host and a panel of commentators treated the reported replacement as an attack on British heritage, mocked the Bank of England and linked the row to inflation failures. There was no Bank of England statement, no confirmation of the note design and no opposing voice defending the change.
- “our illustrious war hero is being replaced on the £5 notes by wildlife icons instead”
- “It is a full-scale cultural attack on our heritage, our history, and Winston Churchill is the tallest poppy of all.”
- “And it's engaging in these ridiculous, woke social engineering programmes and not focusing on its core competence, which is fighting inflation.”
Broadcast Timeline
News broadcasts tracked for this story, in time order.