London, March 11 (Reuters): Mental health charity Rethink defended its statue of the wartime leader Winston Churchill wearing a straitjacket today, saying they commissioned it to highlight the stigma of the illness.

The charity said they commissioned the statue to raise awareness as Churchill suffered bouts of depression.

Churchill’s grandson Nicholas Soames, a Conservative MP, labelled it insulting and pathetic. “We did it to start a debate about the discrimination that is faced by people with severe mental illness,” the Paul Corry, the Rethink director of campaigns said.

“This is about Churchill as an iconic British figure ... who has actually achieved an enormous amount despite having a mental illness.”