In a letter to London Mayor Sadiq Khan and the Mayor of Brent, Bulgarian Ambassador to the UK Marin Raykov wrote that William Gladstone's support and drawing the attention of British society to atrocities contributed to the restoration of Bulgarian statehood in 1878. The letter came in response to a discussion to rename Gladstone Park in London because family members of Gladstone were slave owners.

Ambassador Raykov points out that he supports the initiative of the municipality of Brent to reconsider the names of sites bearing the names of people directly linked to slavery, but does not understand why this was relevant to William Gladstone, who was British Prime Minister and is also a Bulgarian national hero.

"Our people received his support in one of the most difficult moments in their history," Ambassador Marin Raykov wrote. William Gladstone is one the great political figures who were committed to condemning atrocities and massacres of civilians in Bulgaria after the April Uprising of 1876 against the Ottoman Empire.

According to Raykov, if the decision was made, the local Bulgarian community would be deprived of the few names of places in London it feels connected to. This would make us feel less wanted and represented in London, Raykov also wrote.