To the subject of office decor, with Rachel Reeves now in the spotlight for matters other than her Budget. It now transpires that the Chancellor has made some rather controversial alterations to her workspace’s wall art — in replacing a portrait of Margaret Thatcher’s chancellor with a founder of the, er, British Communist party. Good heavens.
The swapping out of Nigel Lawson’s portrait for one of Ellen Wilkinson was revealed after the Treasury published a picture of Reeves in her No. 11 study ahead of Budget day. While it had been reported that the Chancellor had removed Lord Lawson’s portrait over the summer, there had been no confirmation over what would be taking its place. Mr S would remind readers that ‘Red Ellen’ — who Reeves nodded to in her book, Women of Westminster — had even met with Leon Trotsky and the wife of Vladimir Lenin before going on to serve in the wartime coalition government as one of the first female MPs.
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