Since Brexit, a profoundly Churchillian event, the United Kingdom has experienced chronic political instability. No fewer than five prime ministers have succeeded one another at the head of a country whose governability is now being questioned. As speculation grows over who might replace the current prime minister, Keir Starmer, whose position is increasingly under pressure, should the ideal candidate look to Churchill for inspiration?

A recent article in The Guardian compares the current political situation in Britain, where governments have recently lasted anywhere from a few weeks to several months, to that of France’s Fourth Republic, whose permanent state of crisis was resolved in part by the rise of a providential figure, Charles de Gaulle. Given the similarities between the two men in the public imagination, it is tempting to see Winston Churchill (1874–1965) as a model who could inspire an end to today’s instability.

Churchill was long revered before later being reassessed. His legacy returned to the forefront during the heated Brexit debate, which further polarised British society: would he have voted to remain or to leave? Throughout his distinguished career, Churchill supported the idea of a united Europe, though not including the United Kingdom, which he believed should maintain a “special” relationship with the United States. This allowed both supporters and opponents of the EU to claim him as their own. Above all, however, it is the image of a united nation, crowned by victory over Nazi barbarism, that continues to define the Churchill myth.

But should today’s political leaders really follow his example to overcome what increasingly appears to be a dead end?

A wartime leader rather than a peacetime statesman

The short answer is no, obviously. Churchill was, above all, a wartime leader, with no genuine long-term vision for governing a country in peacetime. British voters made this clear in 1945 by electing a far less charismatic but far more capable administrator and consensus-builder: his Labour opponent, Clement Attlee.

But the story Churchill told during the Second World War was that of a triumphant and eternal United Kingdom, confident in its strength and global influence, and this positive narrative later inspired Brexit advocates, from Boris Johnson to Nigel Farage. Yet such a glorious vision depended on the constant presence of an enemy to fight and Churchill’s controversial comparison during the 1945 election campaign between a potential Labour government and the Gestapo was simply out of step with the British public’s........

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