Sir Keir Starmer has been ridiculed for removing a portrait of Margaret Thatcher because he found it “unsettling”.

The Prime Minister’s biographer, Tom Baldwin, said Sir Keir wanted it taken down from the study dubbed the Thatcher Room after a meeting between the pair.

Former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown had commissioned the painting.

Speaking at an event organised by Glasgow’s Aye Write book festival, Mr Baldwin said Sir Keir had called the study a “place where we can go and have a quiet talk”.

He told attendees: “We sat there, and I go: ‘It’s a bit unsettling with her staring down at you like that, isn’t it?'”

Mr Baldwin said the PM gave a one-word response: “Yeah.”

In reply, he then asked if Sir Keir would “get rid of” the six-figure portrait, prompting a nod from the PM. Mr Baldwin added: “And he has.”

Former Tory minister Esther McVey said: “What a pathetic, petty-minded little man Keir Starmer is – removing a picture of the first female prime minister and one of the longest-serving prime ministers. Maybe he doesn’t want to be reminded of a towering politician he could never live up to.”