Treasury gets new look: Historic portrait swap raises eyebrows in Downing Street
New Chancellor makes unexpected changes to No 11ʼs historic wall decor replacing traditional artwork. The switch brings fresh perspective to Treasuryʼs office environment while sparking discussions about representation
The UK Treasuryʼs walls got a make-over today when Rachel Reeves changed the long-standing portrait setup behind her desk. In a quick-and-quiet move she switched out former chancellor Nigel Lawsons picture for one of Ellen Wilkinson (a pre-war Labour figure whose story is quite eye-catching)
Wilkinson had an interesting past: she helped start-up the Communist Party about a century ago but later switched to Labour becoming an MP for Middlesbrough East. Her biggest win was working on education rules that gave kids free school-time learning and milk; she also helped run air-raid shelters during war-time (which shows how multi-talented she was)
The switch fits with Reeves bigger plan to put more women on No 11ʼs walls - either as subjects or artists. Its not the first time Downing Street saw such changes: Sir Keir Starmer already made his mark by putting up different art in No 10‚ including work by Dame Paula Rego who likes painting strong-minded ladies
This whole art-swap thing has been going on for a while now; some traditional pieces got moved around like the portrait of Margaret Thatcher which found a new spot in a meeting room (after people werenʼt happy about its first removal). When asked about todays change‚ Treasury just said: “Change“
