Keir Starmer removes 'unsettling' portrait of Margaret Thatcher from Downing Street, sparking claims of 'pettiness'
29 August 2024, 23:15
Keir Starmer is said to have removed a portrait of Margaret Thatcher from Downing Street.
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The Prime Minister asked for the painting to be taken down because he found it "unsettling," according to his biographer.
The portrait of the former Conservative Prime Minister, who died in 2013, was commissioned by Labour ex-PM Gordon Brown in 2009.
It was intended to remain in Downing Street permanently.
Starmer's biographer Tom Baldwin, speaking at a literary festival in Glasgow, claimed that Starmer had hinted he wanted to take it down even before removing it.
Recalling a conversation with the Prime Minister, Baldwin told the audience at Aye Write: "We sat there, and I go: ‘It’s a bit unsettling with her staring down as you like that, isn’t it?’”
According to Baldwin, Starmer replied that he would.
Asked if he would "get rid of it", Starmer is said to have nodded to suggest he would.
Mr Baldwin said: "And he has."
The decision to take down the painting has sparked controversy among Conservatives.
Tory MP Greg Smith said the move showed "utter pettiness from Starmer", claiming that it showed the PM had "no respect for our history and previous prime ministers".
Former Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg claimed the move was "unbecoming of a Prime Minister who has a role representing the nation, not just his political faction".
Labour's Keir Starmer defends his perceived praise of Margaret Thatcher
Last year Starmer raised eyebrows among some in his party by praising Thatcher for having “set loose our natural entrepreneurialism”.
He later rowed back, telling LBC's James O'Brien that he was praising her ‘mission-driven’ leading style rather than her politics.
