‘He can’t win!’ Labour minister defends Starmer after PM sparks fury with ‘petty’ Thatcher portrait removal

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has been defended after being branded “petty” by critics for removing a significant portrait of Margaret Thatcher from Downing Street.

The Labour leader has taken down Richard Stone’s artwork of the former Tory prime minister as the PM’s biographer claimed he found it “unsettling”.

The portrait, commissioned by Gordon Brown, was unveiled by the Iron Lady in 2009 and had been funded by an anonymous £100,000 donation.

Speaking at Glasgow’s Aye Write book festival, Baldwin recalled asking Starmer if he would remove the portrait from the unofficially named “Thatcher Room”, to which the PM nodded, the biographer claimed.

Hitting out in defence of the Prime Minister, Labour Minister Jacqui Smith told GB News that Starmer “can’t win” and stressed that other Thatcher artwork is still hanging in Downing Street.

When asked by host Stephen Dixon if she believes the decision is “petty”, Smith fumed: “Look, Keir Starmer can’t win, can he?

“A few months ago he was being criticised for talking about Margaret Thatcher’s legacy and the elements of her leadership that he respected, and now he’s being criticised for asking for a few pictures to be moved around.”

Offering her suggestion as to why Starmer would remove the specific artwork of the former Tory leader, Smith noted that Thatcher’s legacy will remain in the gallery with all former Prime Ministers.

Smith told GB News: “Just to be clear, there are portraits of Margaret Thatcher as there are of all previous Prime Ministers in Number Ten. And that, of course, is absolutely right.”

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Noting the wider issues concerning the Labour Government and Britons, Smith urged the PM to “focus on getting the country back on track” rather than redecorating his office.

Smith stressed: “What Keir Starmer needs to do I think is to focus on getting the country back on track.

“Both in the way which he is doing with some of the things that we’ve been talking about this morning, and a lot of other ones.”

Turning the discussion to Labour’s plans to ban smoking in certain outdoor areas of hospitality, Smith defended the move and claimed it would help “get smoking out of the system” of Britons.

Smith explained: “We think this will make a massive difference to people’s health and in fact, to end the pressure that smoking brings onto the NHS as well.”

When pressed by host Ellie Costello on whether the ban is another intrusion on “personal freedoms in a free society”, Smith hit back: “When we first introduced the smoking ban in public places in pubs and restaurants, people said this is a nanny state you’re imposing on my freedom.

“But actually, of course, what we’ve seen is people have adapted to it really, really well.

“And it was probably one of the biggest changes that we were able to make to people’s health and to the impact on the health service.”