Winston Churchill was greatly admired and respected by a large
part of the world.
And Churchill's political history is very strange.
He stood for election in federal politics for the following parties, in order: Conservative (moderate right) Liberal (moderate left), National Liberal (a breakaway party from Liberal that lasted one year), Liberal, Constitutionalist (essentially "independent"), Unionist (a former breakaway of the Liberal party that had now aligned itself with the Conservative party and was a de facto Moderate Right party by then), and back to Conservative.
Seems he was a very indecisive guy, politically speaking. He stood for election to PM 3 times, '45, '50, and '51, and only won in 1951. His time in office from '40-'45 was by appointment by the Regent; he didn't actually win an election. Interestingly enough, the person who he replaced, Neville Chamberlain, also didn't win an election. And frankly, it's a wild ride!
The last person to win an election before WWII was Stanley Baldwin in 1935 with a big Conservative win. He ran on appeasement but rearmament, and praised their Democratic system for having elections instead of just appointing a dictator. He stepped down in '37 and Neville Chamberlain was appointment. He considered calling a general election but decided to serve out the term until 1940. He also was a big fan of appeasement, which is why in his big cabinet shuffle he reappointed the Earl of Halifax, mastermind of the appeasement strategy, to be Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. It's worth noting Halifax met with many Nazi officials and heaped praise on them. Seems he was a racist antisemite himself.
Interestingly enough, Churchill was a backbencher at the time of the shuffle but was catapulted to Lord of the Admiralty. I'll also point out that Churchill was hardly a Saint himself, advocating against independence for the colonies, in particular the Indian colony because he believed Whites, particularly English Whites, were superior. Yup, Churchill was a monumental racism, to the extent that he has been called "the perfect embodiment of white supremacy". In 1955 he even got behind the "keep England white" movement. But I digress.
Chamberlain was actually very unimpressed with Churchill. As Lord of the Admiralty, they had meetings every day, sometimes multiple a day, and yet Churchill was still constantly sending him lengthy memorandums that Chamberlain was convinced were only being written to form the framework of some later book by Churchill, which turned out to be complete true. It was actually Churchill that was behind the disastrous Norway Campaign 2 years later that brought down Chamberlain's government and forced him to resign.
Most of the Conservatives wanted Halifax to succeed, but many parties said they wouldn't work with him (given that he was so sympathetic to Nazis, had praised Nazis, and they were at war with Nazis). Chamberlain didn't want to make the decision, so he held a meeting with both of them (the Nazi and the white supremacist) and told them Halifax was the Conservative frontrunner but Churchill was preferred by the other parties. He asked them their input. Both Churchill and Halifax have claimed that after a long silence, Halifax said it would be impossible for him lead the UK in a war because of his position in the House of Lords. Basically he said a commoner needed to do it, not a member of British Peerage, and so Churchill got he job.
Under Churchill, an Act of Parliament was passed, and given Royal Assent, to postpone the next general election until after the war, and at that point he was soundly defeated.
And that's the story of how English Nazi sympathizers, who praised how great they were for continuing to have elections, almost put the British government in the hands of a Nazi, but instead gave it to a white supremacist, who immediately suspended elections and took full control of the military and is seen as the best political leader of the war and a hero. Like I said, a wild ride!