John Major was warned Churchill archive could be broken up without lottery cash, new government files reveal

Newly-released government files show then Prime Minister John Major was warned that Sir Winston Churchill’s private archive could be broken up unless he approved its purchase using millions of pounds of National Lottery money.

The 1995 acquisition of the papers from the Churchill family trust for £12.5million was very controversial, partly because the beneficiaries included his grandson, also called Winston Churchill, then a sitting Conservative MP.

Another concern was that the archive covering more than 70 years from Sir Winston’s early childhood to the end of the Second World War included official papers which were already the property of the state.

One of the critics of using lottery money was Boris Johnson, then a Daily Telegraph columnist, who called it a case of “taking from the poor to give to the rich”.

The papers released by the National Archives at Kew show officials feared that unless they agreed, the government could face prolonged litigation – with limited chances of success – to prevent the archive being broken up.

After lengthy and sometimes acrimonious negotiations, an agreement was reached and the estimated one million documents would be preserved at the archive centre at Churchill College, Cambridge. The lottery’s national heritage memorial fund would pay £11.5million with the remainder coming from the J Paul Getty Trust.

Lord Mackay of Clashfern, the Lord Chancellor, was not happy about the implications of the agreement.

He warned: “I have to say that I am greatly concerned at the prospect of the government apparently making a gift of public records to a private owner who would then transfer these records to the archive centre along with material for which a considerable sum of money had been given from public funds.

“I would expect that the Prime Minister would wish to give careful consideration to the difficult presentational issues raised by this matter.”

In his reply, cabinet secretary Sir Robin Butler explained that, in part, they were paying to avoid the risk of future litigation. He warned that unless they proceeded as planned, the whole agreement could collapse.

“The £12.5million referred to represents not only the purchase price for the purely private material but also an element of buying out the risk of litigation in which counsel assessed our chances of success as, at best, 50/50,” he wrote.

“We are advised that we should proceed with the transfer as planned on 26 April and that delay could result in the collapse of the whole arrangement. This could lead to a break-up of the archive which is what we have been trying very hard to prevent.”