Sir Keir Starmer has taken down pictures of Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh in Downing Street,it has been revealed.

The Prime Minister was criticised by some shortly after winning the general election when it was discovered that he had replaced a picture of Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher from his Downing Street office.

The portrait of the Tudor monarch and one of her best-known explorers had been on show in a room used for prime ministerial meetings with world leaders.

Downing Street has insisted that the plans for the change of artwork were set in motion by the previous government.

A spokesperson said: “The change of artwork is long planned, since before the election, and is timed to mark 125 years of the Government Art Collection.”

The new artwork was on show last week as the Prime Minister met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The portraits have since been replaced with scenes from Crivelli’s Garden, a mural by Dame Paula Rego, the late Portuguese-born artist, whose work focuses on “strong and courageous women”.

The historical perception of Raleigh and Elizabeth I has been re-examined in recent years, with questions and criticism arising over their role in the establishment of the transatlantic slave trade.

Elizabeth I was an investor in slavery enterprises and gave permission for adventurers to fly her flag aboard their ships.

Raleigh was one of the earliest explorers and colonisers following the “discovery” of the Americas.

His early attempts to establish settlements ended in failure after relations with native-Americans turned sour.

Raleigh was ultimately executed by Queen Elizabeth’s cousin King James I at the Tower of London in 1618 after ransacking a Spanish outpost in contradiction of a treaty.

‘Crivelli’s Garden’, the new painting adorning Downing Street’s meeting room took its inspiration from an altarpiece by the 15th-century Italian artist Carlo Crivelli according to the National Gallery.

It said: “‘La Madonna della Rondine (The Madonna of the Swallow)’ tells the story of women from biblical history and folklore based on paintings in the collection and stories from the Golden Legend.

“Figures including the Virgin Mary, Saint Catherine, Mary Magdalene and Delilah find themselves in the maze of Crivelli’s re-imagined garden surrounded by Portuguese blue and white tiled walls.”

Robert Jenrick, who this week made it to the final round of the Conservative leadership election said: “Elizabeth I was one of our most iconic female leaders. She’s a hero I love to talk to my daughters about.

“Stripping her portrait from Downing Street – alongside Walter Raleigh’s – seems to betray a strange dislike of our history by this Labour Government.

Following his removal of Thatcher’s portrait, Starmer defended the decision insisting that he does not like working beneath portraits that appear to be staring down at him.

He told the BBC: “I use the study for quietly reading most afternoons… This is not actually about Margaret Thatcher at all.

“I don’t like images and pictures of people staring down on me. I’ve found it all my life.”