Rachel Reeves has announced plans to replace every painting in the lavish state room at No 11 Downing Street with artworks of or by women.
Speaking at a reception for female business leaders on Wednesday evening, the chancellor said she wanted to mark the lives of the “amazing women who have gone before us”.
Addressing the all-female gathering, she said: “This is King James behind me, but next week the artwork in this room is going to change.
“Every picture in this room is either going to be of a woman or by a woman – and we’re also going to have a statue in this room of Millicent Fawcett, who did so much for the rights of women.”
King James II, who is posing in a suit of armour, with a lustrous head of shoulder-length hair, is likely to be relegated to a storage room. Most other paintings around the large room currently feature men.
The chancellor is planning to take the same approach to choosing artworks to hang in her study, downstairs in No 11.
Reeves received a warm cheer when she underlined her delight at “smashing the glass ceiling” to become the first female chancellor, and reiterated her commitment to closing the gender pay gap.
“It’s 54 years now since Barbara Castle introduced that legislation on equal pay and yet there is still a 14% gap between what men and women are paid,” she said. “I want to be the chancellor who closes that gap once and for all.”
She mentioned affordable and flexible childcare as one aspect of that challenge.
Taking a break from preparations for next month’s crunch budget, Reeves has discussed her plans for a feminist rehang with the curator of the government art collection. Ministers can choose which works from the extensive collection to put on display.
Keir Starmer, the prime minister, has removed a portrait of Margaret Thatcher, one of his Conservative predecessors, since he moved in to Downing Street.
The grand state room at No 11, with its red silk wallpaper, has large windows overlooking the Downing Street garden, and is used for formal receptions and entertaining guests.
Reeves faces a series of tough tax and spending decisions in the coming weeks that will set the direction for the government. Her announcement that the winter fuel allowance would be scrapped for the vast majority of pensioners attracted widespread concern including within her own party, underlying the trade-offs that lie ahead.
