Readers have their say on a letter submitted to The Mail discrediting Winston Churchill as a hero but condemning the destruction of statues.

Mark Chesher said: "We would not have won the war without Churchill you ignorant person. He was a hero and always will be."

Hanka Short said: "100 per cent agree, if it wasn't for Churchill I dread to think how it all would have been, my dad fought for this country and would be turning in his grave at all these protests."

Carl Wallwork said: "He was voted The Greatest Brit ever by the people of Great Britain in 2002. Says it all really doesn't it."

Jim Rigby said: "You obviously don't know the history of Churchill to make such a comment."

Julie Clarke said: "He is the biggest hero in my time."

Charlie Dowthwaite said: "Winston Churchill was no hero in my view because of the way he treated the working class in his day when he was home secretary. In 1911 during the Great Unrest the transport workers walked out on strike for better pay, conditions and for union recognition. In response Churchill sent in troops to help rail bosses to break the strike and a gun boat was positioned in the river Mersey. More than 50,000 troops were mobilised. They opened fire on civilians in Liverpool and Llanelli-four were killed. Just a year earlier Churchill sent troops to threaten striking miners in Tonypandy in South Wales. He was also brutal to suffragettes, women who were fighting for the right to vote and during a police siege he ordered firefighters not to put out a fire in a building with anarchists and suffragettes inside it, they perished. Overall Churchill was a staunch supporter of the British Empire which was also responsible for the famine it caused in Bengal in 1943 in which five million people died at a time food relief was ready for them - Churchill blocked it. Yes he did support the war against Nazi Germany only in order to defend the last remaining remnants of the British Empire which is still soaked in blood to this day."