Sir Keir Starmer said he took a painting of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher off the wall of the No 10 study because he does not "like images and pictures of people staring down" at him.

The Prime Minister told BBC’s Laura Kuensberg that he preferred portraits.

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News that the picture - commissioned by Gordon Brown - had been removed was first reported in The Herald last month.

Politicians on the right were furious at the decision.

Former first minister of Northern Ireland and DUP leader Baroness Arlene Foster described it as “vindictive and petty."

Asked why he had relocated the portrait, Sir Keir said: “I use the study for quietly reading most afternoons where I have got to have… where there is a difficult paper that I need to.

“This is not actually about Margaret Thatcher at all. I don’t like images and pictures of people staring down at me.

“I’ve found it all my life. When I was a lawyer I used to have pictures of judges. I don’t like it. I like landscapes.

“This is my study, it is my private place where I got to work. I didn’t want a picture of anyone.”

“People will have different views,” he added. “You know, some people have their mantle pieces full of pictures of themselves with world leaders. None of that in ours, not even in the toilet, where people traditionally also put it.

“All I've got is pictures of the kids, the cats now, etc.

“I might tolerate Thierry Henry on the wall, but that's about as far as I go.”

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.

Speaking last month at an event organised by Glasgow’s Aye Write book festival, Sir Keir's biographer, Tom Baldwin said he was recently taken to the room with the picture by the Labour leader.

He said Sir Keir described the study as a “place where we can go and have a quiet talk.”

“We sat there, and I go, ‘It’s a bit unsettling with her staring down as you like that, isn’t it’?” Mr Badlwin said. 

He said the Prime Minister replied, with a “Yeah.”

Mr Baldwin then asked if he would "get rid of it.”

The writer said Sir Keir nodded, adding “And he has.”

During the interview, Sir Keir also revealed that his family’s new pet, a Siberian kitten, is called Prince.

He said a summer of “negotiations” with his children had taken place over getting a dog before they settled on the kitten, adding: “This change has a profound impact on our children.

“People asked me before the election what am I most worried about and I always said the impact on my children.”

He added: “I have to acknowledge this is a big move for them and therefore negotiating a fantastic kitten called Prince was part of the deal that they extracted from me.”