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Sir Keir Starmer created the row by removing a portrait of William Shakespeare from an interior wall at 10 Downing Street.
The Prime Minister has been accused of throwing the bird into the “rubbish bin” after storing the 18th-century painting by Louis Francois Roubiliac.
Sir Keir has already removed portraits of Elizabeth I, Sir Walter Raleigh and William Ewart Gladstone since entering No 10.
In August he caused a furor when he removed a £100,000 portrait of Margaret Thatcher from his former studio because he found it “unsustainable”.
Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg dismissed the original decision as “disgusting” and “frivolous” and Sir Keir had to bow to public pressure to rehang the portrait.
Sir Keir Starmer has caused a stir after removing a portrait of William Shakespeare from a wall at 10 Downing Street.
The Prime Minister has been accused of throwing the bird into the “rubbish bin” after storing the 18th-century painting by Louis Francois Roubiliac.
Shakespeare’s portrait is part of the government’s art collection that incoming prime ministers can use to decorate number 10.
Downing Street said it does not comment on the interior decoration or what will replace the image, the Telegraph reported.
Sir Oliver Dowden, the former Conservative culture secretary, accused the Prime Minister of “succumbing to the usual left-wing shaming about our past”.
“Not content with eliminating Thatcher, Gladstone, Reilly and Elizabeth I, she is now consigning Shakespeare to the dustbin,” he told the Telegraph.
‘Downing Street welcomes thousands of distinguished visitors each year. It should be used to declare him the best writer in the English language without falling into this philistinism.’
Conservative leadership candidate Robert Jenrick said: “We should celebrate and admire the great figures of English history and stop being ashamed of our identity.” “No other country would behave like this.”
The portrait of Thatcher by one of Britain’s leading portrait painters, Richard Stone, depicts the Iron Lady immediately after the Falklands War in 1982.
It took pride of place in a study in what is no longer the Prime Minister’s official office, but which Sir Kiir used for meetings during his first weeks in office.
Sir Kier has already sparked a backlash for removing a £100,000 portrait of Margaret Thatcher from his former study because he found it “uncomfortable”.
Last month, Chancellor Rachel Reeves ordered all images of the men removed from the spacious state rooms at 11 Downing Street.
The chancellor announced that all the paintings in the room would be replaced with works of art by women to celebrate the “incredible women who came before us.”
Mrs Reeves told an all-female reception at No 11: “Behind me is the King James, but next week the artwork in this room is going to change.”
“Every photograph in this room is of a woman or a woman, and we are also going to put a statue of (consumerist) Millicent Fawcett in this room, who did so much for women’s rights.”
