Starmer Removes Thatcher Portrait from No 10 Study

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has faced backlash for removing a portrait of former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher from his Downing Street study, a decision he insists is not about Thatcher but his aversion to people 'staring down' at him from portraits. The painting, depicting Thatcher after the Falklands War, was commissioned in 2007 by Labour’s Gordon Brown and hung by David Cameron. Critics, including Priti Patel and Boris Johnson, have accused Starmer of being petty and attempting to appease left-wing backbenchers. Starmer clarified that his study is a private space where he prefers to have pictures of his children and cats, though he might tolerate a portrait of his football hero, Thierry Henry. The portrait has been rehung in a first-floor meeting room in No. 10.