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Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner beams as she drinks whisky by a straw whereas posing for footage taken by her ‘vainness photographer’.
The lighthearted picture captured on a go to to Scotland sits alongside extra severe photographs of her onerous at work within the quick weeks since Labour received the election taken by Simon Walker.
She is proven variously assembly her Pakistani counterpart, internet hosting a Make Work Pay breakfast assembly and visiting a John Lewis division retailer with London mayor Sadiq Khan in different shiny PR pictures.
The Mail right this moment revealed Ms Rayner, who has been mired in controversy over freebies from Labour donors and will face a sleaze inquiry, has risked a contemporary storm over Mr Walker’s appointment on a wage of £68,000.
He has been given the title of Chief Photographer to the Deputy PM and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Native Authorities. He beforehand labored as Rishi Sunak’s chief photographer.
Labour officers have denied that it amounted to recruiting a ‘vainness photographer’ for the DPM, one thing Ms Rayner condemned whereas in opposition.
In 2021, when Boris Johnson was PM, she mentioned: ‘The general public will likely be rightly questioning why there may be apparently no restrict on the cash that may be discovered to pay for a coterie of vainness photographers for the Prime Minister.’
Ms Rayner on a go to to the Johnnie Walker Whisky Expertise in Edinburgh in August, the place ‘she met senior enterprise leaders, mentioned the significance of the whisky business to Scotland and was proven across the expertise’.
Ms Rayner and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan with John Lewis govt director Peter Ruis and deputy department supervisor Melissa Lidder in London earlier this month
On the International Workplace with Excessive Commissioner of the UK in Pakistan Jane Marriott, he Deputy Prime Minister of Pakistan Mohammad Ishaq Dar and the Excessive Commissioner of Pakistan to the UK of Nice Britain and Northern Eire Dr. Mohammad Faisal
With Secretary of State for Enterprise and Commerce Jonathan Reynolds at a Make Work Pay Enterprise Breakfast assembly with enterprise leaders in 10 Downing Road
In 2021, when Boris Johnson was PM, she mentioned: ‘The general public will likely be rightly questioning why there may be apparently no restrict on the cash that may be discovered to pay for a coterie of vainness photographers for the Prime Minister.’
Mr Walker beforehand labored in No 10 as chief photographer to Rishi Sunak.
This morning Chancellor Rachel Reeves insisted he was not Ms Rayner’s ‘private photographer’.
She advised Occasions Radio: ‘All authorities departments below all governments have press officers and communications budgets. It isn’t a private photographer.’
And the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Native Authorities (MHCLG) mentioned the photographer had been employed to chronicle the work of the division, not simply Ms Rayner.
‘Many authorities departments make use of official photographers to share the work of the division and ministers with the general public,’ the division mentioned.
‘It is a civil service function and will likely be a part of MHCLG’s communications workforce.’
However Tory shadow paymaster basic John Glen mentioned: ‘That is simply the newest in a protracted line of Labour ministers saying one factor after which doing one other.
‘Labour’s promise to chop the dimensions of the federal government spin invoice was nothing greater than empty phrases, they’d quite spend taxpayers’ cash on their very own vainness tasks than on maintaining pensioners heat this winter.
‘After scrapping Conservative plans to slim down civil service headcount, Labour ought to cease pretending that their choice to chop the winter gasoline allowance was something apart from a political selection.’
In Downing Road earlier this month
On the first Make Work Pay assembly
Mr Walker was beforehand Rishi Sunak’s chief photographer when he was prime minister, and photographed him leaving No10 after his election defeat in July
On the finish of August Ms Rayner took a photographer when she visited the scene of a residential fireplace in Dagenham East London, assembly ‘firefighters and different key responders’
Ms Reeves was requested on BBC Breakfast whether or not the rent was a waste of public cash and mentioned the Authorities had dedicated to decreasing the dimensions of its communications funds, however reiterated that every one departments have media officers and photographers.
‘Not for particular person politicians however to help the coverage work, the campaigning work, the initiatives of Authorities departments, to assist Authorities departments do their jobs.
‘This isn’t to help Angela Rayner as a Labour Occasion politician. That is to help the ministry for housing, communities and native authorities.’
Beginning out as a freelancer in 1987, Mr Walker labored as a photographer for the Every day Specific and The Occasions, earlier than turning into Information Image Editor at The Occasions in 2004.
After leaving Reuter’s image desk in 2018 he moved briefly in direction of consultancy work earlier than becoming a member of HMRC on the finish of 2019, after which shifting to the Treasury.
Mr Rayner has been reported to the parliamentary requirements commissioner accused of failing to correctly declare a keep in a New York condominium.
Within the letter to the watchdog yesterday, the Conservatives say the Deputy Prime Minister might have damaged the foundations by not admitting she was staying with former MP and her ex-boyfriend Sam Tarry.
Ms Rayner insisted yesterday she appropriately declared the 5 days within the lavish $2.5million (£1.8million) Manhattan condominium gifted to her by donor Lord Alli.
Within the letter to the watchdog yesterday, the Conservatives say the Deputy Prime Minister might have damaged the foundations by not admitting she was staying with former MP and her ex-boyfriend Sam Tarry (pictured in March 2023)
Ms Rayner insisted yesterday she appropriately declared the 5 days within the lavish $2.5million (£1.8million) Manhattan condominium gifted to her by donor Lord Alli (pictured)
However whereas she registered the journey, she failed to say that Mr Tarry stayed together with her, in what the Tories say is a breach of the Home of Commons code of conduct.
She and Mr Tarry stayed within the condominium – which has a roof deck, courtyard and health suite – from December 29 to January 2 this 12 months, The Sunday Occasions reported.
The constructing’s web site describes it as being on the coronary heart of the theatre district with ‘unbelievable views’ over the Hudson river and New Jersey. The 2-bedroom 1,300 sq ft property was lent to Ms Rayner by the Labour donor on the centre of the row over items to the PM and his spouse.
She says that Lord Alli – who has given her greater than £50,000 over the previous 4 years – is primarily a private good friend however she selected to report the keep as a result of he was additionally a donor to her political actions.
The parliamentary commissioner for requirements investigates potential non-compliance with the MPs’ code of conduct and might order members to replace their register or situation an apology to the Commons.
In line with the parliamentary register of pursuits, Ms Rayner was given a flat as lodging for 5 nights to get pleasure from a ‘private vacation’ in New York.
The foundations say MPs should declare overseas journeys which they, or anybody related to them, undertake if a donor pays for ‘half or all’ of it because of their ‘parliamentary or political actions’.
Ms Rayner’s workforce declare that she didn’t must declare that Mr Tarry, the ex-Ilford South MP, had joined her as a result of Lord Alli was not conscious that he had.