Painting that hung in former PM’s study since 2009 no longer there – but aides are tightlipped as to whereabouts
In a summer punctuated by an election and then riots there has not really been a “silly season”, the traditional news-light period when holidaying MPs become worked up about trivialities. That is until now – thanks to a row about a portrait of Margaret Thatcher.
What is known is that the slightly austere painting of the former prime minister by the artist Richard Stone has been moved from the Downing Street study where it had hung since 2009, when Gordon Brown commissioned it.
This one fact was enough to prompt front page stories in the Daily Mail and the Telegraph, as well as apocalyptic responses from the likes of the former Tory minister John Redwood, who said it showed Keir Starmer “wants to drag Britain down”.
Meanwhile, Priti Patel, asked about Starmer’s decision at her Conservative leadership campaign launch, said: “I think it tells us everything really about his priorities.
