It won’t matter which animals appear on Britain’s banknotes if shops refuse to accept cash

The response to this from opposition politicians past and present was disappointing if not predictable: “self-loathing from the wokerati” was blamed for “erasing” Churchill from our history.

But not one elected representative used this debate as an opportunity to talk about the real issue here - one which they undoubtedly hear from their constituents all the time - which is that British businesses are becoming increasingly hostile to cash payments.

A report from the Treasury Committee last April warned that we were at risk of becoming a ‘two-tier society’ if the Government doesn’t act on cash acceptance, and the latest data from ATM network Link backs this up: one in seven UK shops has gone cashless in just the last year.

Yet the threat to our society if we don’t protect cash goes deeper than financial exclusion. If last year’s blackouts in Spain and Portugal and the cyberattacks on UK high-street stores showed us anything, it’s that we can’t always rely on our digital payments infrastructure.

This risk hasn’t gone unnoticed: four in five of us expect bank fraud and cyberattacks to rise, and growing numbers are stockpiling cash in case of such emergencies.

What the public seems to understand, that many UK politicians seemingly don’t, is that this isn’t just about personal preference - preserving our cash infrastructure is a serious defence issue.

Other countries recognise this. Estonian and Polish authorities recently joined Swedish and Norwegian policymakers in encouraging households to keep aside a stash of cash.

The European Parliament is even pushing ahead with its own digital version of cash to reduce its dependence on American card companies as the US becomes a less predictable player on the world stage.

This is a risk we should be alert to in the UK, too, since 95% of our card payments go through America’s Visa and Mastercard. Given the airtime (and money) the UK Government is currently giving to defence, there is clearly a strong case for preventing our cash infrastructure from disappearing.

Despite Government actions to improve people’s access to cash - like introducing rules to slow branch closures and rolling out more banking hubs - these efforts will be in vain if they don’t safeguard our ability to spend cash.

Instead of making this a culture wars issue, politicians should focus on the impacts real wars might have on our ability to pay for essentials in the future and make it mandatory for businesses to accept cash.

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Sara Hall is Co-Executive Director at research and campaign group Positive Money.

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