He was not even that popular in his finest hour, as head of a cross-party coalition wartime government, being kicked out of office by the British people before the war had even ended and never once won the popular vote in any general election.
Edit: Someone obviously doesn't like easily verifiable facts.
His witticisms are often fondly repeated, and some of his most famous portions of his speeches are known to everyone in England. You also find some of his most famous pictures (cigar-toting v for victory) in a lot of places.
That’s not to say people adore him or would dislike you for talking poorly of him, but it’s a much wider segment of the population than you suggest.
It’s an interesting problem though. People are aware of his racism and more controversial actions, but the feeling is that it doesn’t really matter. For leading our country through a fight for its very survival, he gets a free pass, because who is to say that we’d be around to discuss winning WW2 if another man was in charge.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1951_United_Kingdom_general_el...
Churchill: 13,717,851
Attlee: 13,948,385