Conservatives have accused Sir Keir Starmer of “petty” behaviour a portrait of Margaret Thatcher was removed from Downing Street. 

The new Labour Prime Minister decided the “unsettling” picture had to go as he embarked on a round of redecoration after moving into his new home.  

The Herald exclusively revealed the news on Thursday, but the story is now breaking across the country with Tory tanks outraged at the sudden defenestration of their late idol.  

Sir Keir has been dubbed “churlish” and “disappointing” for getting rid of the portrait, with one national newspaper accusing him of “petty vindictiveness”  

But was he right to break from the past? Or should he have honoured history by keeping the painting of the divisive PM on the wall?  

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Tory outrage as 'petty' Starmer orders removal of Thatcher portrait from No 10

The picture of Ms Thatcher was commissioned by Gordon Brown in 2007 when she visited him for tea at No 10, a few months into his premiership. 

It was painted by royal artist Richard Stone, with an anonymous donor stumping up the £100,000 cost. 

When it was unveiled in 2009, it was hung in the former No10 study, unofficially known as the Thatcher Room, which, at the time, was used by Mr Brown for meetings with foreign dignitaries. 

 

There was anger from some in Labour at the time of the commission, with one anonymous MP telling the Mail on Sunday: “Maggie Thatcher is the devil incarnate to many of our supporters who remember how she destroyed the unions and put our people on the dole. Gordon Brown may have forgotten that. Some of us haven't.”