Channel 4 ‘disgraceful’ over new documentary suggesting Winston Churchill oversaw ‘secret apartheid’ in Britain

Channel 4 has been branded a “disgrace” by a new documentary which suggests Winston Churchill oversaw a system of “secret apartheid” in Britain.

Churchill: Britain’s Secret Apartheid aired on Saturday night, exploring the lives of American soldiers in the UK during the Second World War.

In the documentary, novelist Nadifa Mohamed delves into the lives of black GI soldiers stationed in the UK, and the conundrum facing ministers over how to deal with the segregationist rules of the Northern Army American who accompanied them.

Historians have since criticized the show, claiming its title shows a “disregard for historical accuracy” due to the implication that the wartime prime minister oversaw a system of segregation .

Baron Roberts of Belgravia, author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny, told the Telegraph: “It is a complete disgrace to give a headline to a program which directly contradicts the facts.

Novelist Nadifa Mohamed presents Churchill: Britain’s Secret Apartheid. Pictured with Nancy Adkins, whose uncle was killed during the violence in Lancashire during the war

“The person who chose the headline either knew this (it was false) and was being deliberately dishonest, or they didn’t and just assumed Churchill must have been racist in this matter because that’s what the liberal zeitgeist says he would have been.

“That Channel 4 chose a novelist rather than a historian to present the show is just another example of their despicable disregard for historical accuracy.”

Roberts noted that Churchill at a 1942 War Cabinet meeting had concluded that the US military would not receive aid to “enforce a policy of segregation”.

He added on X/Twitter: “He presided over the October 13, 1942 War Cabinet meeting which concluded about the US military: ‘Our authorities, civilian or military, must not expect that the help enforce a policy of segregation.

“It was clear that, as regards admission to dining-rooms, public establishments, theatres, cinemas, &c., there should be, and ought not to be, any restriction of the facilities hitherto extended to colored persons as in consequence of the arrival of the United States Troops in this country.”

“That is, Churchill took the exact opposite position to that implied by Channel 4, which chose a novelist to present the program rather than a historian.”

Mohamed, author of The Fortune Men, consults historians throughout the show, as she travels the country to “uncover a secret history about Britain and race”.

The show itself, produced by Red Bicycle, explores the lives of black American GIs during their time in the UK, with little reference to Churchill himself.

It is not the first case of Churchill that has been controversially linked to colonialism, racism and slavery

Black American soldiers were stationed in Britain during the war, and the show tells their story

Historians have since criticized the show, claiming its title shows a “disregard for historical accuracy”

Andrew Roberts, historian and writer, poses during the Cliveden Literary Festival 2021 at Cliveden House

Mohamed says, in an introduction to the show: “There was a side of our ally that is uncomfortable to remember. The Nazis believed in white supremacy. So did many Americans.

He adds: “Now in 1942, along with the chewing gym, nylons and the jitterbug, the US military was bringing its Jim Crow racial policy to Britain, whether we liked it or not.”

During the show, he delves into the personal stories of black GIs, including Private William Crossland, who was shot at Bamber Bridge in Lancashire, and another who was shot in the back at Tiger Bay in Cardiff.

Since the rise to prominence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, the former prime minister has been controversially linked to colonialism, racism and slavery.

In August, it was revealed that a portrait of Churchill was to be hung alongside the context of his links to “racism, slavery and colonialism” following an artwork review by from the Conservative-led Hertfordshire County Council.

The wartime depiction of the Prime Minister – painted in 1967 as a replica of a 1943 print – will remain on display at County Hall in Hertford pending a proper explanation of the ties, he reported the Telegraph.

The National Trust suffered a backlash in 2021 when an audit of his properties turned up samples of information at Chartwell, his former home in Kent, noting that the politician served as Colonial Secretary in the 1920s and had opposed Indian independence.

Mohamed consults historians throughout the show, as he travels the country to “uncover a secret history about Britain and race”.

The statue of Churchill in Parliament Square, which has been vandalized on several occasions

Churchill’s reputation has come under increased scrutiny in recent years, particularly since the rise of Black Lives Matter

Although Churchill is regarded as one of the greatest Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom Second World War triumph, many opinions and actions that would now be considered racist have drawn criticism, especially since the year Black Lives Matter The movement became more prominent in 2020.

Before World War II, in 1937, he said he had no sympathy for Native Americans or blacks in Australia, who were enslaved and succeeded by white settlers.

Churchill said: “I do not admit that these people have been harmed by the fact that a stronger race, a superior race, a wiser race so to speak, has come in and taken their place. ‘

He took little action in 1943 when a famine in India, then still part of the British empire, killed three million. The prime minister at the time even appeared to blame Indians for the food shortage, stating that they “breed like rabbits”.

The famine was caused by the Japanese occupation of Burma a year earlier, which affected rice supplies.

Early in his political career, Churchill advocated the use of chemical weapons against the “uncivilized” Kurds and Afghans.

In a 1919 war memo, he wrote: “I cannot understand this fuss over the use of gas. I am strongly in favor of the use of poison gas against uncivilized tribes.

FEMAIL has contacted Channel 4 and Red Bicycle for comment.