Queen’s portrait row: Bungling NIO won’t answer simple questions

On Wednesday, the News Letter revealed that the NIO – a department in Her Majesty’s Government – had banned the display of the portraits or photos of the Queen in its Belfast headquarters.

That report was based on a written answer from Lord Rogan in the House of Lords, two well-placed sources and a politician who was in Stormont House last week and said that where previously there had been photos of the Queen there were now landscapes.

The NIO did not dispute the accuracy of the News Letter report and has not asked for it to be corrected.

However, within hours of new Prime Minister Boris Johnson being told about the issue by the UUP and DUP, reportedly leaving him “shocked”, the NIO released a statement from new Secretary of State Julian Smith which implied that Royal portraits had never been removed from Stormont House.

Mr Smith said in the statement that he was “delighted to see a picture of Her Majesty in my office when I arrived at Stormont House for the first time” last Friday.

Curiously, the statement went on to refer to “many” Royal portraits being on display in Hillsborough Castle – despite the fact that in 2014 the NIO handed over responsibility for Hillsborough Castle to Historic Royal Palaces and therefore it is no longer under the NIO’s jurisdiction.

While not openly saying that Royal portraits and photos had been removed from the walls of Stormont House, Mr Smith’s statement alluded to the NIO’s rationale for their removal, saying: “I also recognise the importance of the Northern Ireland Office being an open and inclusive place to work, able to attract highly skilled people from across all parts of our community in Northern Ireland. As an employer in Northern Ireland, the NIO takes its obligations under the Northern Ireland Act and Fair Employment legislation seriously.”

Mr Smith first arrived in Stormont House last Friday – three days after Lord Duncan referred in his House of Lords answer to the NIO’s sensitivities around “posters, pictures, portraits or other displays that are more closely associated with one or other of the communities” – a description which clearly would include images of the Queen – and told peers: “I can confirm that the department takes steps to ensure no such images are displayed in Stormont House.”

On Wednesday night, the News Letter asked the NIO press office when the photo of the Queen was placed in Mr Smith’s office.

A senior press officer said that he did not know the answer but would attempt to find out. No response was forthcoming.

Yesterday morning, we asked the question again, along with several other questions. At the time of going to press last night, the NIO had not responded at all.

Speaking on the Nolan Show yesterday morning, UUP MLA Doug Beattie said: “I never saw a picture of the Queen in Karen Bradley’s office, so has that just been put up?”

At lunch time yesterday, Mr Smith tweeted a photo of a small picture of the Queen on the mantelpiece of his private office in Stormont House, saying he was “proud” that the photo was there and “delighted” to see it last Friday.

When asked to clarify when the picture was placed there by the NIO, Mr Smith did not respond.

In a second House of Lords written answer on Wednesday, Lord Duncan said that the NIO’s London office continued to have Royal portraits on display.

He also referred to more than one picture of the Queen which he said was displayed in Stormont House.

When asked where the other pictures are, beyond the one in Mr Smith’s office, the NIO did not respond.

DUP MP Gavin Robinson – who along with his DUP colleagues keeps the Tories in power – told BBC Newsline that Mr Smith needed to act to restore the portraits.

Michael Wardlow, chief commissioner of the Equality Commission, made clear that the commission had never been asked to give the NIO advice about the issue – so the decision was not because of it.

He said that what appeared to have happened at the NIO was that a “policy decision” had been taken to remove the images.

He told Talkback: “It would be rare that you would say that a picture or an emblem of the Royal Family or something else in and of itself would be offensive ... it depends on the circumstances.”

Dr Wardlow also made clear that equality law does not mean that employers have to provide “neutral” workplaces, but rather that they are “good and harmonious”.

He said: “What sort of a society marks a shared society? It is certainly not neutrality. That avoids the difference and I think we want to be looking at how we celebrate difference.”