> He was voted 10th greatest Briton in a national poll there in 2002
It was a TV competition the first round of which was a survey of 30,000 people. The voters who got him on the list and to 10th place probably aren't that many people to call “monsters”. (You were probably referring to all Britons other than the 9 ahead of him, but that’s simply the wrong set.)
https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Greatest_Britons
Churchill was first - another figure who splits opinion depending on where you ask.
Either way, its always better not to demonise those you argue against, whatever you feel about who they are championing.
Turning the opposition into "monsters" is what led to the pogroms and massacres these histories are full of.