On the film's release, Labour MP Brian Jenkins, used Prime Minister's Questions in June 2000, to claim that the film was an "affront to the memories of the British sailors who lost their lives on this action." Prime Minister Tony Blair said, "I agree entirely with what you say...we hope that people realise these are people that, in many cases sacrificed their lives in order that this country remained free." Paul Truswell, MP for the constituency of Pudsey, a town closely associated with , wrote to the U.S. president, Bill Clinton who acknowledged that the film's plot was only a work of fiction. The director of the local Hosworth Museum lamented the rewriting of history, saying: "You can't rewrite history and we have to pass on the facts to the younger generation through the schools."