Starmer’s biographer Tom Baldwin said this week that Starmer, who heads up Britain’s new center-left government, had found the portrait “unsettling” and asked for it to be taken down, according to a report
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Britain’s new Prime Minister Keir Starmer drew sharp criticism from Conservatives after he removed a portrait of Margaret Thatcher from her former study in No. 10 Downing Street.
According to a Politico report, Starmer was branded “petty” and “nasty” for shifting a £100,000 Richard Stone painting of the late Tory prime minister to another room in the official government residence.
Starmer’s biographer Tom Baldwin revealed this week that Starmer, who leads Britain’s new center-left government, found the portrait “unsettling” and requested its removal, added the report.
The Herald was the first to report these comments.
The move provoked swift condemnation from Conservative figures and dominated the front pages of right-leaning newspapers, including the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph.
“I’m not at all surprised he’s done this. He wouldn’t want to be embarrassed by comparison with a far better prime minister,” The Politico quoted right-wing veteran John Redwood, who led Thatcher’s policy unit, as telling Daily Mail.
Redwood criticised Starmer as “pessimistic, negative and nasty.”
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith also criticised Starmer, calling him “petty” and accusing him of catering to his “hard Left” supporters.
Addressing the controversy on Friday, government minister Jacqui Smith said her boss, who had previously praised Thatcher for bringing “meaningful change” to the UK, “can’t win.”
“A few months ago he was being criticized for talking about Margaret Thatcher’s legacy and the elements of her leadership that he respected, and now he’s being criticized for asking for a few pictures to be moved around,” The Politico quoted Smith as telling GB News.
She clarified that a portrait of Thatcher remains in a Downing Street gallery with all former prime ministers.
“Just to be clear, there are portraits of Margaret Thatcher as there are of all previous prime ministers in No. 10,” she added. “And that, of course, is absolutely right.”
The portrait of Thatcher by Stone has a notable bipartisan history. It was commissioned by then-Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2009 to honor the achievements of the right-wing leader.
With inputs from agencies