Political positions of Winston Churchill

The historian Roger Hermiston writes that, when forming his national coalition government in May 1940, it helped Churchill that his own career had "never been circumscribed by party affiliation".

[2] Churchill was perceived by some observers to have been largely motivated by personal ambition rather than political principle,[3][4] and he lacked "permanent commitment to any party".

[5] While Robert Rhodes James wrote that Churchill was "fundamentally a very conservative man",[5] Martin Gilbert considered him to be always "liberal in outlook".

[6] Roy Jenkins believed that, whether Churchill was conservative or liberal, he invariably opposed socialism, except that he was completely reliant on the help and support of his Labour Party ministers in the wartime coalition.

[7][8] Churchill was wary of socialist tendencies toward state planning and bureaucracy, because he consistently believed in both the liberty of the individual and of free markets.

To Churchill, the idea of dismantling the Empire by transferring power to its subject peoples was anathema – especially manifested in his opposition to the Government of India Act 1935 and his acerbic comments about Mahatma Gandhi, whom he called "a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir".

[30] In his view, India was not ready for home rule because he believed that the Hindu Brahmin caste would gain control and further oppress both the "untouchables" and the religious minorities.

[37] As Leader of the Opposition, he told John W. Dulanty and Frederick Boland, successive Irish ambassadors to London, that he still hoped for a united Ireland.