The Bank of England has spent more than £85,000 of research money to justify wiping Winston Churchill, Jane Austen, J.M.W. Turner and Alan Turing off Britain’s banknotes and swapping them for hedgehogs, foxes and puffins.
A Freedom of Information trail shows Savanta was paid £49,000 to run focus groups that told officials historical figures were “elitist and divisive.”
Another £22,500 went on public consultations about which animals should replace them. The Bank called the result a “positive evolution,” not censorship.
The October 2025 Savanta report, delivered months before the nature theme was announced, warned that portraits of notable Britons were “contentious and not representative of the UK’s cultural and natural diversity.”
Officials were told historical figures represented “a backward-looking vision of the UK that carries too great a risk of division and controversy.”
Most of the 119 focus-group participants said featuring such people was “potentially divisive, elitist and disconnected from their own experiences.”
Churchill sits on the current £5. Austen is on the £10, Turner on the £20, Turing on the £50. All are scheduled to go. King Charles stays on the front.
Governor Andrew Bailey is due to pick the animals by the end of 2026 from a shortlist that includes the European hedgehog, red fox, Atlantic puffin, barn owl, common frog and bottlenose dolphin.
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