Keir Starmer took down Thatcher picture as he does not like images of people staring down at him

‘All I’ve got is pictures of the kids and the cats. I might tolerate Thierry Henry on the wall but that’s about as far as I go’

Sir Keir Starmer has claimed he took down a portrait of Margaret Thatcher because he doesn’t like pictures of people staring down at him.
The Prime Minister was criticised after it emerged he had asked for the artwork to be removed from the Iron Lady’s former study just weeks into his premiership.
The portrait of Baroness Thatcher had been commissioned by Gordon Brown and was unveiled in 2009 with the intention of permanently displaying it in Downing Street.
But Sir Keir was reported to have found the likeness of the former prime minister “unsettling” and it has since been hung in a first floor meeting room instead of his study.
Asked about the row on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, the Prime Minister said: “The first thing is Gordon Brown didn’t actually hang it in the study. It was commissioned and hanging somewhere else, I think it was David Cameron that brought it into the study.
“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 on 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. So this is my study, it is my private place where I got to work. I didn’t want a picture of anyone, I wanted pictures of landscapes.”
Sir Keir recalled that during his time as a lawyer before he entered politics, his colleagues had “tried to persuade me” to have pictures of prominent legal figures in his office.
“I didn’t like it, I don’t like it any more if they’re politicians,” he added. “There isn’t any politician staring at me, in my study, where I just get on with the work I need to get on with.”
Ms Kuenssberg joked it was “unusual” for a politician to not like to have people looking at them.
“People have different views,” Sir Keir said. “In our house, now flat, you won’t… You know, some people have their mantelpieces 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, of the cats now. I might tolerate Thierry Henry on the wall but that’s about as far as I go.”
An avid fan of Arsenal Football Club, Sir Keir has repeatedly named former French international striker Henry – who scored 228 goals for the side – as his favourite player.
He has also said Henry would be among his dream dinner party guests as well as Barack Obama, the former president of the United States, and Victoria Starmer, Sir Keir’s wife.
The Tories claimed last month that Sir Keir’s decision to remove the painting of Thatcher showed he had “got a problem with women”.
The move was labelled “petty-minded” by Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former Tory MP and cabinet minister, and was also condemned by Dame Priti Patel, a former home secretary.