Jane Austen unveiled as face of new £10 note

_{Elizabeth Fry is being replaced by Sir Winston Churchill}

This prompted a major online campaign: 'Keep a woman on English banknotes', to be set up by women's rights advocate, Caroline Criado-Perez. The campaign, which attracted more than 35,000 signatures, successfully lobbied the Bank of England, with the support of Conservative and Labour MPs, over the last three months, to ensure that women's contributions to Britain, were not overlooked on legal tender.

Mr Carney has also today agreed to review the Bank of England's process for selecting historical figures to appear on banknotes.

"We acknowledge the concerns that have been raised recently about the diversity of characters on the notes, and would like to provide reassurance that, as part of the rolling programme of note launches, it was never the Bank's intention that none of the four characters on our notes would be a woman.

"The Bank continues to be mindful of the need to ensure that our notes represent a diverse range of characters, both now and in the longer term," a spokesman for the Bank said.

"In the light of recent concerns, and in order to ensure that our notes represent the full diversity of British people, the Bank has decided to review the approach to, and criteria for, selecting characters to appear on banknotes...The purpose of the review, which will be overseen by Chris Salmon, the Bank's Executive Director for Banking Services and Chief Cashier, is to refine the criteria for character selection, and establish a process to ensure that potential candidates are consistently judged against those criteria."

Caroline Criado-Perez said: "This is a brilliant day for women and a fantastic one for people power. Without this campaign, without the 35,000 people who signed our Change.org petition, the Bank of England would have unthinkingly airbrushed women out of history.

"We warmly welcome this move from the Bank and thank them for listening to us and taking such positive and emphatic steps to address our concerns; to hear Jane Austen confirmed is fantastic, but to hear the process will be comprehensively reviewed is even better."

_{The draft design of the new note}

Features of the new Jane Austen £10 note, which will be issued within a year of the Sir Winston £5 banknote, include: a quote from Pride and Prejudice - "I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!", a portrait of the author and a picture of her writing table against the backdrop of Godmersham Park - the home of her brother, Edward Austen Knight.

Maria Miller, Women's and Equalities Minister, who supported the campaign, said: "It is great news that the Bank of England has reassessed the importance of having other women, alongside the Queen, on its banknotes and that as a first step Jane Austen will now feature on the new £10 note.

"We have maintained the importance of recognising the many inspirational women in our history who have achieved incredible things, in the same way that we do men. Florence Nightingale and Elizabeth Fry were on previous notes and I'm delighted that now that tradition is being continued."

Stella Creasy, Labour MP for Walthamstow, who helped organise a letter from 46 Labour MPs and peersto David Cameron and the Bank of England in support of the campaign, added: "It's great to hear that the Bank of England has listened to concerns on this, and the message removing women from our currency sends, and has acted to ensure we celebrate the contribution women have made to our nation in this way, as well reviewing the original decision-making process.

"Britain has many women in its history of whom we should be proud, and today's decision is part of creating a culture of expectation that there will be many more in our future too."

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