Sir Keir Starmer was last night accused of being in thrall to ‘the wokerati’ after the full list of the paintings removed from No10 since he moved in was revealed.
Portraits of historic figures such as Elizabeth 1, Mary, Queen of Scots, Sir Walter Raleigh and William Shakespeare were among the 69 works of art ‘deinstalled’ from the Government Art Collection since the election.
The revelation comes after a long Freedom of Information battle with the Tories.
Among their replacements are Altar, a scene from the 2023 Falmouth Reggae Festival in Cornwall by Denzil Forrester.
Other paintings include All Things Being Equal, by the Nigerian abstract artist Nengi Omuku, which ’employs the human body as a medium to convey internal experiences’ by ‘using oil paint on strips of Sanyanan indigenous fabric from pre-colonial Nigeria’.
Then there is Almond Clasp by the British-Ghanaian Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, who specialises in ‘brooding portraits of Black life’, and Still (III) by Christina Kimeze, who currently has an exhibition ‘inspired by the resurgence of roller skating in Black communities’.
At least five images of Winston Churchill have been removed from Downing Street and Parliament, while portraits of senior Labour figures including Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and ex-culture minister Baroness Hodge have also been installed as part of a push to boost ‘gender and ethnic diversity’.
Sir Keir had removed from his study a portrait of Baroness Thatcher commissioned by Gordon Brown – telling the BBC that he didn’t like ‘pictures of people staring down at me’.
Five images of Oliver Cromwell have been removed from Parliament, along with several paintings of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
Alex Burghart MP, Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said: ‘It speaks volumes about this Labour Government that they have purged Downing Street of some of the greatest figures in British history.
‘The wokerati now run Britain and want to tear down our past.’
The Department of Culture spokesman says that works of art are ‘swapped around all the time’.