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The governor of the Bank of England has defended the decision to axe Sir Winston Churchill from banknotes after a backlash to the plans.
The UK's central bank has backed the decision to replace Britain's wartime hero with wildlife.
Andrew Bailey told LBC's Tonight with Andrew Marr: "We have to move them along in terms of their resistance to counterfeiting. And we have to think quite a few years ahead because it takes time to produce new ones and to get the design.
"So, we’ve come to a point where we need to do that. Now, I think the decisions on security, which are paramount, are best taken by people who understand security."
Sir Winston was first added to the £5 note in 2016 – but the Bank of England is set to do away with historical figures altogether in favour of wildlife after a consultation.
Mr Bailey added: “It's obviously an important design and aesthetic component to that. So I think it was right for us to consult the public, which we did very openly and broadly.
"We gave a few broad categories – would you like historical figures, nature, architecture and buildings? It was an open question, and the public said they really would like nature and particularly animals.
"Now, I think we have to respect the public on this."
After the backlash to the plans to remove Sir Winston, Mr Bailey insisted the decision was "in no sense disrespectful to historical characters".
"It's no sense disrespectful to anybody, Winston Churchill or anybody who either we've had on the banknotes or may have on the banknotes. But it was a clear view from the public and I do think we need to respect the public's view.”
“We didn't slant the consultation in any way to say we'd prefer you choose animals because we can do more with them on security grounds. We didn't say that at all, actually.”
