Portraits of Winston Churchill have been pulled from the walls of Parliament ‘since Labour’s election victory’_Nhy
Portraits of Winston Churchill and other renowned British Prime Ministers have been taken down from the walls of Parliament following Labour‘s 2024 election win.
After winning 412 seats in the House of Commons, Sir Keir Starmer and Labour returned to government for the first time in 14 years in July 2024 following the general election.
Starmer had promised to implement a host of changes if elected, but one of the first things on the Labour agenda was seemingly a rearrangement of Parliament’s decorations, The Telegraph have revealed.
Just days after Starmer’s July 4 election win, five portraits of William Gladstone, the four-time Conservative Prime Minister, were taken down from Parliament’s walls, along with five photos of former Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell.
And a few days later the new Government too removed portraits of the Duke of Wellington among a host of other famous British figures, before taking down ‘drawings, prints and photographs of Winston Churchill.’
Five images of the former Prime Minister were dragged down from the parliamentary estate including one photo from Portcullis House, Parliament’s main office building, showing Churchill standing at the Cenotaph in 1945, according to the Telegraph.
Portraits of many famous British figures have been taken down since Labour won the election, including pictures of Winston Churchill
Just days after Starmer’s July 4 election win, five portraits of William Gladstone, the four-time Conservative Prime Minister, were taken down from Parliament’s walls, along with five photos of former Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell
Any new Government has pick of the Parliamentary Art Collection, which holds more than 26,000 portraits, drawings and pictures from which the buildings can be decorated.
Following news of Labour’s re-decoration, a spokesman for UK Parliament told The Telegraph: ‘There are more than 26,000 items within Parliament’s Collections, and there are regular movements, for example due to maintenance works in an area, changes to the occupancy of spaces and conservation needs.’
The collection underwent an audit following 2020’s Black Lives Matter movement, and it is thought that many of the photos removed were chosen because of their links to Britain’s colonial past.
Portraits of Lord Salisbury, poet John Milton, Charles I, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were also removed.
It was reported by MailOnline in 2023 that nearly 200 artworks had gone missing from the huge parliamentary collection.
The House of Parliament collection features around 10,000 pieces ranging from the medieval period to the 21st century
Paintings, drawings, century-old photographs and even a life-size sculpture are among the pieces that could not be located.
It was not made clear whether any of the pieces were stolen, but a Freedom of Information request from Mail Online revealed that 199 pieces could not be located.
An 1801 portrait of William Pitt the Younger, a 19th Century sketch of William Gladstone and a six-foot high sculpture of Queen Victoria were amongst the pictures missing.
At the time, a spokesperson for the House of Commons said: ‘Parliament is continuing to address collection objects historically identified as missing or not located through ongoing audits and regular reviews across the estate.
‘The number of objects catalogued as missing or not located is only true at the time of request and may differ over time.
‘Parliament has an ongoing programme to address the matter, through comprehensive and regular audits, recently resulting in a 5 per cent reduction in objects identified as missing since 2021.’
