Keir Starmer has ordered the removal of Margaret Thatcher's portrait from Downing Street (commissioned by former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown) because he doesn't like "images of people looking down at me". His confession during an interview on the BBC has caused a significant stir among conservative ranks.
"The portrait was in the study, where I usually spend my afternoons reading and working," revealed the Prime Minister. "The decision has nothing to do with Margaret Thatcher. It's my private workspace and I don't like portraits of anyone. I prefer landscapes."
Starmer recalled that when Gordon Brown commissioned the portrait of Thatcher, executed by Richard Stone in 2009 and valued at 118,000 euros, he did not decide to hang it in the bright Downing Street study, which was precisely the favorite working place of the former Prime Minister.
"I think it was David Cameron who decided to put it there," added Starmer, without needing to mention that Thatcher's intimidating gaze witnessed five successive Conservative Prime Ministers in the space of six years.
"When I was a lawyer, people tried to persuade me to hang portraits of judges on the walls looking at me all the time," emphasized the Labour Prime Minister, trying to explain his peculiar aversion. "But I didn't like it. And I like it even less if it's politicians."
The most he can tolerate, he assured, is a portrait of a football player like former Arsenal star Thierry Henry. He is also not one to hang photos on the walls of his encounters with high dignitaries and celebrities. "All I have are photos of my children and cats now", he said after revealing that the new Siberian cat of Downing Street (where the presence of felines is inevitable to keep mice at bay) has been named Prince.
According to The Daily Mail, Starmer not only has several portraits hanging in his parliamentary office in Westminster, but he also allows himself to be "observed" by the busts of Conservative Prime Ministers like Winston Churchill and Benjamin Disraeli.
Former Home Secretary and former Tory leadership candidate Priti Patel was the first to openly criticize his decision to remove the iconic portrait of Thatcher: "The Prime Minister seems to spend more time removing pictures of women and Conservative leaders than working hard for a strong government."