Keir Starmer has managed to wind up senior Tories by ordering the removal of a Margaret Tatcher portrait from No 10 Downing Street, as the Prime Minister apparently found the portrait ‘unsettling’.
Margaret Thatcher was a polarising figure to say the least, but the portrait has been a staple at No 10 since ex-Labour PM Gordon Brown commissioned the picture when she visited him in 2007 soon after he took office.
It was painted by royal artists Richard Stone and was paid for by a £100,000 (!) anonymous donation.
It was hung in the former No10 study which was known as the Thatcher Room.
Kier Starmer’s biographer, Tom Baldwin, says he was recently taken to the Thatcher Room by the PM, who described it as a “place where we can go to have a quiet talk”.
Baldwin said: “We sat there, and I go, ‘It’s a bit unsettling with her staring down as you like that, isn’t it’?”
He said the Prime Minister replied: “Yeah.”
Baldwin then asked if he would “get rid of it.”
The writer said Starmer nodded, and before he knew it, the portrait was gone.
Asked about the claims by Mr Baldwin about the removal of the portrait, a Downing Street spokesperson told Sky News: “We don’t comment on the interior of the house.”
In any case, senior Tories are fuming:
I think it is “unsettling” that the PM should remove the first female PM from No 10. He cannot deny her role in our nation – the most significant PM after Churchill. Not a good start from Labour, looks and feels vindictive and petty. https://t.co/Xa9TM8uRRm
— Arlene Foster DBE PC #ProudofNI. (@ArleneFosterUK) August 29, 2024
Former Tory minister Esther McVey told the Daily Express:
“What a pathetic, petty-minded little man Keir Starmer is – removing a picture of the first female prime minister and one of the longest-serving prime ministers. Maybe he doesn’t want to be reminded of a towering politician he could never live up to.”
Member of Scottish Parliament Meghan Gallacher added:
“It’s disgraceful that Keir Starmer would remove a picture of Britain’s first female prime minister… Regardless of your opinions on Margaret Thatcher, she paved the way for women in politics and tackled sexist stereotypes head-on. She’s an inspiration for many, a defining figure in British politics and she deserves to be recognised for her many achievements… Her legacy should be honoured – the portrait should be returned.”
Funnily enough, Keir Starmer was full of praise for Margaret Thatcher in a column he wrote for the Sunday Telegraph in December last year, which rubbed his Labour peers up the wrong way. Those same people will probably be quite happy with his decision to remove the Thatcher portrait from No 10, and doubly so knowing that it winds up the Tories so much too.
At the end of the day, No 10 is Keir Starmer’s gaff for the time being, so he can decorate the place how he sees fit. I’m not sure he’ll appreciate his biographer telling everyone about it, but that’s something he probably should have seen coming.
For the Lincolnshire pensioner who was caught on CCTV spraying graffiti on a Margaret Thatcher statue, click HERE.
