by Angela Rayner, grinning from ear to ear, stares into the camera as she sips a whiskey cocktail through a straw.
This snap was taken by the Deputy Prime Minister’s new “vanity” photographer, from a trip to the Johnnie Walker experience in Edinburgh last month.
It is one of more than a dozen public moments held by Simon Walker since she hired him on a reported salary of £68,000.
Mr Rayner has faced accusations of hypocrisy over the appointment, given his fierce criticism of Tory ministers’ use of government photographers.
She has quickly put Mr Walker to work, taking her with her as she travels around the country on official trips.
One photograph captures her clutching the Department’s red folder and smiling into the camera as she leaves a meeting about workers’ rights.
In another she is more serious as she looks away from the lens as she talks to firefighters at the scene of a house fire in Dagenham, east London, last month.
He also embraced the diplomatic efforts of the Deputy Prime Minister, who agreed to meet his counterpart in Pakistan earlier this month.
Ms Rayner left herself open to criticism after the 2021 referendum resurfaced in which she attacked Boris Johnson for spending on government photographers.
“Instead of spending more taxpayers’ money on more photographers for his own good, the Prime Minister should prioritize feeding the children who will be hungry at half term next week and families who will be giving face £1,000 cuts to Universal Credit,” she wrote.
It is now usual in recent years for No. Hire 10 photographers to record the Prime Minister’s movements. However, Ms Rayner is said to be the first representative to have her own.
A government spokesman insisted Mr Walker was part of the Department’s wider communications team rather than a “personal” hire for Mr Rayner.
He said: “Many government departments employ official photographers to share the work of the Department and ministers with the public.
“This is a civil service role and he will be part of the Department’s communications team.”
Although reports suggest he is paid £68,000, he is understood to have been appointed to a grade seven role in the Civil Service, which allows a maximum salary of £66,677 in London.
‘Project Vanity’
On his LinkedIn profile, his job description is listed as “chief photographer for the Deputy Prime Minister and the Ministry of Housing, Community and Local Government”. He previously worked in No. 10 as principal photographer for Rishi Sunak.
Mr. Rayner has been accused by Mr. Rayner of a “vanity” project, and the appointment is in danger of raising a row of “freebies” that have rocked the Labor leadership in the past week.
It also prompts Labor for allegations of hypocrisy, as the party said in 2021 that the man hired to photograph Boris Johnson was “part of a coterie of vacuum photographers”.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed the hire during an interview on Monday morning, the second day of the Labor conference, but said Mr Walker was not Ms Rayner’s “personal photographer”.
She told Times Radio: “Every government department under every government has press officers and communications budgets. He is not a personal photographer.”
Speaking to LBC, she said: “Every government department has communications teams, communications teams to promote campaigns, policies and the work of government departments. We are reducing the budget for the Government Communications Department because I want to get a grip on government spending.”
John Glen, the shadow master-general, said: “This is just the latest in a long line of Labor ministers saying one thing and then doing another. Labour’s pledge to reduce the size of the government’s spin bill was nothing more than empty words. They would rather spend taxpayers’ money on their own empty projects than on keeping pensioners warm this winter.
“Having scrapped Conservative plans to reduce the number of people in the civil service, Labor should stop pretending that their decision to cut the winter fuel allowance was only a political choice.”
A Tory source told the Mail: “Is there any bigger vanity project than the Deputy Prime Minister with thousands of pounds of free clothes, her free luxury holiday, and now her publicly paid photographer? “
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Community and Local Government said: “Many government departments employ official photographers to share the work of the Department and ministers with the public. This is a civil service role and will be part of the MHCLG communications team.”
It comes as Ms Rayner faces the possibility that the parliamentary Standards Commissioner will investigate the use of a $2.5 million flat in New York loaned by Labor peer Lord Alli.
