Just eight weeks after becoming Prime Minister, Keir Starmer has decided to remove Margaret Thatcher’s portrait from Downing Street. The Conservative community is outraged by his behavior, especially since Starmer recently publicly praised Thatcher’s importance to British politics.
The £100,000 portrait was commissioned more than a decade ago by former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The new Prime Minister is said to have described the portrait as “disturbing”.
The removal of the portrait was condemned as “vindictive” and “petty” by Conservative MPs and prompted the Prime Minister to return it to its place in Downing Street.
In a “petty” move, the new Labour Prime Minister has ordered a £100,000 painting to be removed from Thatcher’s Downing Street office after reportedly finding it “disturbing”. The painting, painted by royal portraitist Richard Stone, shows the late Prime Minister at the height of her power shortly after the Falklands War in 1982. Ironically, it was commissioned by former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown as a tribute to her achievements and unveiled at No 10 in 2009.
— wrote journalist Mario Nawfal in X.
False appearances
Starmer’s disrespect for Baroness Thatcher, who was Prime Minister for 11 years from 1979 to 1990, is all the more remarkable because, just months before the general election, he praised her in a newspaper article.
In comments that were furiously attacked by then union leaders and left-wing Labour MPs, the prime minister praised her for bringing “significant change” to British politics.
Margaret Thatcher sought to shake Britain out of its torpor by unleashing our natural enterprise
– he wrote in The Sunday Telegraph last December.
Starmer’s removal of the painting was revealed by Tom Baldwin, a senior adviser to Ed Miliband when he was leader of the Labour Party and author of an insightful and acclaimed biography of Keir Starmer.
Starmer used Thatcher to curry favour with Conservative voters during the election, but tarnished her memory while in power. Starmer is not only “two-faced”, but also “two-faced”.
– we read on the Turning Point UK profile on website X.
The history of the portrait
The painting was commissioned by Brown after Lady Thatcher visited him at Number 10 when he was Prime Minister. It was funded by an anonymous donation of £100,000 and unveiled in 2009.
Speaking at the Glasgow Book Festival, Baldwin said Starmer told him the portrait hung in his Downing Street office, informally known as the “Thatcher bedroom”.
In the conversation, first reported by the Glasgow Herald newspaper, Baldwin said the prime minister told him the office was “a place where we can go and talk in a relaxed way”.
We sat there and I said, It’s kind of disturbing to see him looking at you like that, isn’t it?
– he said.
He said the prime minister responded with one word: “Yes.”
Baldwin said he then asked if Sir Keir would “get rid” of the portrait, prompting Starmer to agree. He then added: “And so it happened.”
Outrage from the opposition community
Asked about Baldwin’s claims about the portrait being removed, a Downing Street spokesperson told Sky News:
We do not comment on the interior of the house.
But widespread reports of the painting’s removal quickly sparked a furious row, with senior opposition politicians furiously condemning the prime minister.
Leading the charge, former Northern Ireland First Minister Baroness Arlene Foster wrote in X:
I find it disturbing that the Prime Minister would remove the first female Prime Minister from tenth place.
His role in our nation – the most important Prime Minister since Churchill – cannot be denied. This is not a good start for the Labour Party, it looks vindictive and petty.
– she added.
What a pathetic, petty little man Keir Starmer is – he removes a picture of the first female Prime Minister and one of the longest serving Prime Ministers. Perhaps he doesn’t want to be reminded of a great politician he will never equal.
former Conservative minister Esther McVey told the Daily Express.
Gordon Brown commissioned this portrait after calling the first female prime minister ‘a strong politician who saw the need for change’
said Scottish politician Russell Findley.
I agree with Gordon Brown’s sensible stance of treating his political opponents with decency and respect…. Keir Starmer seems to have a much more petty approach.
– he added.
Anti-feminine attitude
Meghan Gallacher, representing the Scottish Conservatives, also commented:
It is shameful that Keir Starmer has deleted a photograph of Britain’s first female Prime Minister (…) Whatever your opinion of Margaret Thatcher, she paved the way for women in politics and challenged sexist stereotypes. She is an inspiration to many, a defining figure in British politics and deserves recognition for her many achievements… Her legacy must be honoured – her portrait must be returned.
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hm/Sky News/The Guardian/X
