Labour candidate under fire for Churchill smear

Mr Whittingham posted “Bit disappointed Churchill is on the new £5 given he was a racist and white supremacist. Can’t go into the future with a foot in the past.”

The tweet, which has since been deleted, has caused outrage, with current Conservative MP Ben Wallace writing to Labour leader Ed Miliband to demand that he be made to apologise.

The letter by Ben Wallace demands a public apology stating that “politics should be about ideas and argument not ignorant sneers”.

He continued: “Winston Churchill was often a lone voice in Parliament demanding that Britain stand up to the Nazis - the true white supremacists.

“Without his determination and courage millions of European people would have been persecuted by Hitler.

“The intolerance of intolerance and the standing up to fascism is what Mr Churchill stood for all his life.

“The Labour candidate should apologise to the Churchill family and all those that stood by Winston Churchill during the dark days of the Second World War.”

The tweet has also been slammed by Winston Churchill’s grandson, Sir Nicholas Soames, who describes it as “deeply insulting”.