Students campaign to replace Gladstone name on university building

Four times British Prime Minister William Gladstone could have his name erased from his hometown university building and replaced by TV news anchor Jon Snow after an anti-slavery campaign launched by students.

Gladstone, a Liberal politician of the 19th century, and the only man to have been Prime Minister on four separate occasions, did not wholeheartedly support the abolition of slavery and his father's money came from the slave trade, students claim.

Now a University of Liverpool hall of residence, named the Roscoe and Gladstone Building, is currently being demolished to be re-developed with a group of students suggesting Gladstone and his "racially marred legacy" be dropped in favour of "more worthy" Channel 4 presenter Jon Snow or poet Carol Ann Duffy, both alumni of the university.

More than 50 students have backed a petition on the Liverpool Guild of Students website, passing the 20 votes needed for the suggestion to be debated at a summit meeting on November 21.

If passed the Guild will discuss the matter with the university and the idea could be adopted as a campaign by the body, representing 21,000 students.

Alisha Raithatha, a veterinary medicine undergraduate from Birmingham, is suggesting the change and said Gladstone fought for reparations for slave traders like his father before slavery was abolished in 1807.

Ms Raithatha, writing on the Guild website states:

The student adds that William Roscoe was a leading abolitionist who did not see eye to eye with Gladstone, born on Rodney Street in the city, and their names should not be side by side on the building. Another alternative suggested is to name the new building simply the Roscoe Building.

A number of buildings named after people - and statues of their image - who had links to the slave trade have recently come under attack in Britain with suggestion their names be removed.

Liverpool dominated the transatlantic slave trade during the 1700s, its ships transporting half of the three million Africans carried across the Atlantic by British slavers.

Penny Lane, made famous by The Beatles, was itself named after James Penny, a local slave-trader who opposed the abolition of the trade, and an old jibe used against Liverpool has been that every brick was cemented by the blood of African slaves.

Sean Turner, President of Liverpool Guild of Students, said: