WHILE Desperate Dan is honoured with a statue in his native city, Dundee just can't bring itself to recognise its former MP who was last year elected the greatest Briton of all time.

The Beano star has had a simple relationship with Dundonians. They drew him, and he duly ate all the cow pies.

But Sir Winston Churchill's relationship with the city he represented for nearly 15 years was not his finest hour. He was eventually unseated by the only Commons candidate ever elected as an alcohol prohibitionist, Edwin Scrymgeour.

Now nearing the centenary of Churchill's 1908 election, a campaign is under way to give the wartime prime minister the Tayside recognition some think he deserves. Although a Liberal when representing the city, the pressure comes from the Conservative Party he was later to join and lead.

The campaign has been sparked by a new study of the troubled relationship between MP and constituents, to be broadcast in a BBC Radio Scotland documentary today.

Its title reflects a low point, in 1909, when staying at the Queen's Hotel. He wrote to his wife: "This city will kill me. Halfway through my kipper this morning an enormous maggot crawled out and flashed his teeth at me. Such are the penalties which great men pay in the service of their country."

Research has found his bill for a three-day visit in the year of his defeat would have topped GBP1000 in today's currency, of which GBP140 went on wine and spirits. Dundonians disliked him for spending so little time there and flashing his wealth when he deigned to visit.

In the 1922 election at which he was defeated, he was howled down at his own hustings, having backed mill-owners during a pay strike. His wife Clementine took his place, and was spat at for wearing pearls.

He was linked by Dundonians with the decision to send local Black Watch soldiers to their deaths in Antwerp during the First World War. And he alienated the founder of DC Thomson, whose Courier newspaper refused to use his name, even when prime minister.

In 1943, the council narrowly agreed to offer Churchill the freedom of the city, but he turned it down.

Neil Powrie, a Tory city councillor, says it is time to get over the hostility. "Many people in Dundee are not even aware we have this incredible link, " he said. "He has been voted the greatest Briton but his years in Dundee were the springboard for all his great achievements."

Arguing Churchill's legacy to the working class included the workers' tea break and widows' pensions, he said there should be a week-long Churchill festival with university lectures and the commissioning of a permanent memorial bust or statute.

But Jill Shimi, Labour leader in Dundee, said it would be better to have Churchill recognised as a national leader, "so his status in Westminster is a much more fitting tribute". The council is meanwhile drawing up plans for a memorial tribute to the city's feisty female jute workers.