Keir Starmer has had a portrait of Margaret Thatcher removed from No 10 Downing Street, according to his biographer.
Tom Baldwin said that after Starmer took office he had spoken with the prime minister in Thatcher’s former No 10 study, unofficially known as the Thatcher Room, where a portrait of her was on display.
Speaking at an event organised by Glasgow’s Aye Write book festival, Baldwin said: “We sat there, and I go: ‘It’s a bit unsettling with her staring down as you like that, isn’t it?’”
Starmer replied yes and, when asked whether he would “get rid of it”, the prime minister nodded, according to Baldwin.
Baldwin added: “And he has.”
The portrait of Thatcher, painted by Richard Stone, was commissioned by Gordon Brown and unveiled at a private reception in 2009.
Brown invited Thatcher to tea at Downing Street shortly after he succeeded Tony Blair in 2007 and told her he intended to commission the painting.
The artwork, which cost £100,000 and was paid for by an anonymous donor, was the first of a former prime minister to be commissioned by No 10.
Thatcher chose the jewellery and buttons she was shown wearing in the portrait.
The decision to take down the painting, first reported by the Herald, has been criticised by some in the Conservative party.
Greg Smith, the MP for Mid Buckinghamshire, told the Telegraph the decision was “utter pettiness from Starmer” and claimed that it showed he had “no respect for our history and previous prime ministers”.
Murdo Fraser, a Scottish Tory leadership candidate, said: “It seems like a churlish move, but perhaps Sir Keir Starmer was intimidated by the gaze of a world-renowned leader whose achievements he will never come close to matching.”
Last December, Starmer praised Thatcher for bringing “meaningful change” in Britain.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, the Labour leader said she had “set loose our natural entrepreneurialism” during her time as prime minister.
No 10 has been contacted for comment.
