British MPs chose Mandela as most popular political hero

LONDON: Anti-apartheid campaigner and Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela was named as the most popular political hero in a survey of British MPs published in 'The Independent' on Tuesday.

Mandela was nominated by 27 MPs in a survey of more than 150 members of the lower House of Commons conducted by CommunicateResearch, followed by former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher with 12 nominations and British war-time leader Winston Churchill with 11.

Current British Prime Minister Tony Blair was fourth with seven, and former health secretary Aneurin Bevan, credited as one of the architects of Britain's government-run National Health Service, rounded out the top five.

The MPs were given free rein in the survey to nominate anyone as their hero, leading to a wide variety of submissions.

One member of parliament named Jed Bartlett, the fictional American president played by Martin Sheen in the US television drama 'The West Wing'.

Another listed Theoden, King of Rohan, a character from JRR Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings', while one nominated Boudica, queen of a Celtic tribe from eastern Britain who led an uprising against the occupying Roman Empire in the year 61.

Among the more conventional nominations, meanwhile, were former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who had four submissions, and former US president Bill Clinton.