Rishi Sunak joins calls to save the barge that bore Sir Winston Churchill during his funeral from being snapped up by a foreign buyer

• The Havengore carried Sir Winston’s body to St Paul’s Cathedral in 1965

Rishi Sunak hopes a British buyer can be found for the iconic barge that bore Sir Winston Churchill during his state funeral so the vessel can stay in the UK.

Lending his support to the growing campaign to save the Havengore for the nation, which already counts former prime minister Boris Johnson among its backers, Downing Street said Mr Sunak hoped a domestic buyer would come forward.

The Havengore entered service in 1956 as an ordinary Port of London Authority hydrographic survey vessel, mapping changes to the bed of the Thames Estuary.

But a decade later it was used to transport Sir Winston’s body along the river following the funeral service at St Paul’s Cathedral. In front of a monumental TV audience, he was later transferred to a train to be taken to his final resting place in Bladon, Oxfordshire.

The vessel also played a prominent role in the Queen’s 2012 Diamond Jubilee.

The Prime Minister has joined calls to save the iconic barge that bore Sir Winston Churchill at his funeral from being snapped up by a foreign buyer

Rishi Sunak said that he hoped a domestic buyer could be found for the Havengore so that the vessel would stay in the UK

The barge was used to transport Sir Winston’s body to his funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral

Sir Winston Churchill stepping into a car before handing his resignation in July 1945

Sir Winston’s coffin on its way to Festival Pier in London during his state funeral in 1965

But Chris Ryland, who bought the vessel for £780,000 in 2006, has struggled to find a buyer, and it is now on sale for £800,000 – down from the £2million price initially suggested by a broker.

If a foreign buyer does try to snap it up, the Government’s reviewing committee on the export of works of art and objects of cultural interest could introduce an export bar to allow more time for a UK purchaser to be found. Eminent historian Niall Ferguson, a Mail contributor, and broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby have also publicly urged a British buyer to come forward.

Professor Ferguson has said he would ‘welcome an effort to keep Havengore in this country’. While Mr Johnson said the ‘boat is part of the history of our country and it deserves to remain here’.

A No 10 spokesman said: ‘When it comes to preserving our heritage, the Prime Minister strongly believes the history of remarkable British heroes like Churchill should remain in our public spaces.’

Source: Read Full Article