Churchill portraits removed from Parliament after Labour's victory

Portraits of Winston Churchill have been removed from Parliament since Labour's landslide general election victory, The Telegraph can reveal.
Drawings, prints and photographs of the Second World War leader were taken down following the arrival of new MPs in Westminster last year.
Churchill's legacy has been revised in recent years, with some academics and activists arguing that he was a racist imperialist who was responsible for the Bengal famine.
Five images of the two-time prime minister were removed from parts of the parliamentary estate occupied primarily by MPs' offices. One photograph removed from Portcullis House, Parliament's main office building, showed Churchill standing at the Cenotaph in 1945.
Images of other great Britons, including the Duke of Wellington, were also removed from display after Labour's victory.
The portraits form part of the Parliamentary Art Collection, a repository of 10,000 works from which MPs can choose for the purpose of decorating their offices.
The collection was audited for possible links to slavery and racism following the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. The audit was carried out by the Speaker's advisory committee on works of art, which produced a dossier of artworks depicting historical figures deemed to be controversial.
Portraits of several figures included in the dossier were taken down following the election, in which 335 new MPs were returned to Parliament, with Labour gaining 211 seats. The intake was said by some think tanks to be the most racially diverse ever.
Days after the July 4 election, five portraits of William Gladstone, the four-time liberal prime minister, were taken down. Gladstone's father had owned slaves and was compensated financially following the abolition of slavery.
At the same time, five images of Oliver Cromwell were also removed. He had been listed in the audit as someone who 'supported slavery, had financial or family interests in the transatlantic slave trade and slavery'. Lord Liverpool, a Tory prime minister, was listed in the same way, and a portrait of him has been removed.
Three portraits of the Duke of Wellington were also taken down a week after the election. The general and prime minister, although not mentioned in the dossier, furthered colonial interests in India.
Although William Wilberforce was a famous campaigner for the abolition of the slave trade, a portrait of him was also removed.
A portrait of Lord Salisbury, the Victorian prime minister, was taken down, along with artwork depicting the poet John Milton, Charles I, and a painting of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
Most affected artworks were removed from the office buildings of Portcullis House, Derby Gate and the Norman Shaw building, outside the main Palace of Westminster and used for offices for MPs. It is understood they are now in storage.
Within the Palace of Westminster, which is not subject to the same choices as an individual office, there are several statues and paintings of Churchill.
The display and location of artworks in the Commons is overseen by the Heritage Collections Team and the Speaker's advisory committee on works of art. Some artworks are built into the fabric of the Palace, while others have more or less permanent positions. Some rotation of artworks also takes place, not necessarily dictated by MPs.
News of the changes comes after The Telegraph revealed that Sir Keir Starmer had removed a portrait of William Shakespeare from No 10, along with images of Elizabeth I, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Margaret Thatcher.
The Telegraph has also revealed that Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, has taken down images of leaders including David Lloyd George and Benjamin Disraeli from No 11 in favour of .

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