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Señor Keir Starmer Today he gave in to public pressure and hung up a portrait of Margaret Thatcher which he took from his old studio in Calle Downing.
Number 10 announced that the painting, valued at £100,000 (sent from the Thatcher Room because the Labour Prime Minister found it “disturbing”), has been put on display in a “first floor briefing room”.
But Sir Keir still faced a chorus of demands to return him to the room named after him, with former Conservative Cabinet Minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg leading the knightly charge.
Sir Jacob, whose father William attended the unveiling of the portrait by Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2009, said: “The portrait should be returned to its rightful place in the studio where she worked. It was a malicious and mean-spirited decision by Sir Keir, which he should kindly reverse as soon as possible.”
The work by Richard Stone, one of Britain’s leading portrait painters, depicts the Iron Lady immediately after the Falklands War in 1982.
Sir Keir Starmer bowed to pressure and re-hung a portrait of Margaret Thatcher that he had removed from his former study in Downing Street.
The painting, valued at £100,000, has now been put on display in a “first floor meeting room”, No 10 announced.
It was prominently displayed in a study that is no longer the Prime Minister’s official office but which Sir Keir used for meetings during his first weeks in office.
Sir Jacob added: “It was a previous Labour Prime Minister who bestowed this honour on him in recognition of his extraordinary achievements and service to this country.
‘But while Mr Brown’s gesture was dignified and honourable for a statesman, Sir Keir’s actions make him look petty and narrow-minded.’
No 10 has not revealed what painting will be hung in its place, although Sir Jacob warned: “I hate to think what Lady Thatcher’s image will replace her with. A portrait of her EU heroine Ursula von der Leyen, or perhaps one of her favourite trade union barons smiling as Labour hands out another huge and unjustified pay rise to its members?”
Former Conservative MP Sir Conor Burns, who was a close confidant of Lady Thatcher, said: “Margaret was hugely honoured that it was a Labour Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, who commissioned this portrait in recognition of her historic impact on this country.
Former Conservative cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg called for the image to be returned to its “rightful place” in the former prime minister’s study.
‘Thanks to this generous gesture, she became one of the few senior prime ministers to have an official portrait in Downing Street. But she was also deeply moved that it was decided that her image should hang in the very studio where she worked so diligently for 11 and a half years to transform Britain.
«In other words, it is not only the portrait but also its location that matters here.»
Sir Conor added: “I therefore hope that the current Labour Prime Minister will take a moment to reflect and then order the portrait to be returned to where it belongs – Thatcher’s Study.”
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Sir Keir’s “petty” removal of the painting showed he misled the public when he… He praised Mrs Thatcher during her election campaign.
In his Daily Mail column yesterday, Johnson said: “We are entitled to ask: who is the real Starmer? Is he a Thatcher fan or a visceral leftist? The answer, my friends, is now clear: not just because of his petty decision to remove his photo, but because of everything he is doing in government.”
