The removal of a painting depicting former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher from its old place in the Prime Minister’s official residence caused a summer uproar in Britain.
Britain’s politically eventful summer is ending with a table upset.
This week it became clear that the new prime minister representing the Labor Party Keir Starmer has moved the former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s plaque off the wall in the Prime Minister’s official residence at 10 Downing Street.
Prime Minister’s biographer Tom Baldwin confirmed the matter, a British newspaper The Guardian tells.
According to Baldwin, the painting made Prime Minister Starmer uneasy.
Among other things, Britain’s largest afternoon newspaper Daily Mail and a newspaper The Daily Telegraph made the topic the number one news item on Thursday.
The conservative party also took a stand on the matter, which hinted on his X accountthat Starmer’s motive is misogyny.
– Tell that women are a problem for you without telling that women are a problem for you, the conservative party wrote in X in connection with the news.
Former Conservative minister John Redwood in turn said that Starmer wants to “ruin Britain”.
Another former Conservative minister thought the removal of the painting spoke volumes about the prime minister’s priorities.
– It is not important for him to serve the country, but he literally focuses on tinkering on the sidelines, Priti Patel quoth According to The Guardian.
Thatcher a controversial figure in Britain
Thatcher, who led Britain throughout the 1980s, is one of the most iconic politicians of the Conservative Party.
Dubbed the Iron Lady, Thatcher’s legacy has been contested. With a heavy hand, he ranted about economic reforms that have been praised by market liberals and cursed by supporters of the labor movement.
The transferred tableau shows the Iron Lady at the height of her popularity in 1982, just after the victorious Falklands War.
The value of the painting received from a private donor is over 100,000 euros. Since 2009, the painting has hung in the Prime Minister’s official residence in a room where Thatcher often worked.
Changing the interior of the Prime Minister’s official residence is typical. The prime ministers have at their disposal a state collection of over 15,000 art objects, from which they can choose the interior of their choice.
However, the painting depicting Thatcher does not belong to this collection, and at least the author of the painting Richard Stone thought of the board as a permanent decoration element of the official residence.
Most likely, the board is not leaving the official residence. It just got a less visible and for now unknown place.