Keir Starmer has removed an “unsettling” portrait of Margaret Thatcher from Downing Street.
The painting of the former Tory PM was commissioned by Gordon Brown when she visited No.10 in 2007.
It had been hanging in her former study, which is now known as the Thatcher Room.
But author and journalist Tom Baldwin, who is Starmer’s biographer, has revealed that the PM has decided to take it down.
Speaking at the Aye Write book festival in Glasgow, Baldwin said the pair had recently gone to the study to “have a quiet talk”.
Baldwin said: “We sat there, and I go, ‘It’s a bit unsettling with her staring down at you like that, isn’t it’?”
When Starmer agreed, Baldwin asked if he would “get rid of it”.
He said Starmer nodded, adding: “And he has.”
Downing Street sources confirmed to HuffPost UK that the portrait has now been removed.
The move has been criticised by Russell Findlay, who is the bookies’ favourite to be the next leader of the Scottish Tories.
He said: “Gordon Brown commissioned this portrait after calling the first female Prime Minister ‘a conviction politician who saw the need for change’.
“I agree with Gordon Brown’s reasonable position to treat his political opponents with decency and respect.
“Keir Starmer seems to have a much more petty approach.”
