Claim 68bf35b4Checked 21 Jul 2026
TrueOn the truth scale
“Those MPs were called eccentrics.”
Reasoning & Evidence21 Jul 2026
The claim that MPs who raised the alarm about Hitler in the 1930s were called "eccentrics" is supported by the historical record. Multiple sources confirm that anti-appeasement MPs, particularly Winston Churchill, were dismissed and disparaged by the political establishment with terms including "eccentric."
The Imaginative Conservative article states explicitly that "Most British statesmen regarded Churchill at best as an eccentric. At worst, they thought him unreliable and perhaps incompetent." A TIME magazine retrospective describes Churchill being met with cries of "Warmonger!" and "Cassandra!" The BBC reported that anti-appeasement MPs were dubbed "Glamour Boys" by Neville Chamberlain, had their phones tapped, faced deselection threats, and were spat at. History Hit notes that "The political and public majority considered Churchill's position irresponsible and extreme and his warnings wildly paranoid." The Julian Lewis essay quotes Churchill himself observing that blunt truths were "relegated to the category of 'warmongering.'"
So while "eccentric" was one of several dismissive labels applied to the anti-appeasement MPs — alongside "warmonger," "alarmist," "scaremonger," and others — the specific claim that they were called eccentrics is accurate. The broader characterization in Farage's interview turn, that these MPs were lampooned and "considered to be mad," is also well-supported by the historical evidence.
Sources:
- The Imaginative Conservative, "The Road to War, 1937-1939" — https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2025/03/road-war-1937-1939-mark-malvasi.html
- TIME, "Books: Winnie" — https://time.com/archive/6764334/books-winnie/
- BBC News, "The gay MPs persecuted for opposing appeasement of Nazi Germany" — https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54478753
- History Hit, "From Persona non Grata to Prime Minister: How Churchill Returned to Prominence in the 1930s" — https://www.historyhit.com/from-persona-non-grata-to-prime-minister-how-churchill-returned-to-prominence-in-the-1930s/
- Rt Hon Sir Julian Lewis MP, "Britain and the Coming of War, 1932–39" — https://www.julianlewis.net/essays-and-topics/2936:britain-and-the-coming-of-war-1932-82119-7
From article
How can the entire political class be wrong? Well, they were all wrong about Hitler, weren’t they? Out of 600 MPs, there were 20 [who raised the alarm] – and do you know what they were called? Warmongers. Eccentrics. They were lampooned; they were considered to be mad. Even when Churchill produced the data [about German rearmament], the political class looked away.
You know, we’ve seen it in science, we’ve seen it in business: even if the status quo is pointing in entirely the wrong direction, it exerts a very strong force on the political class – and the more career-orientated our politicians are, the stronger it is.
Sources opened