Angela Rayner, grinning from ear to ear, stares into the camera as she drinks a whiskey cocktail through a straw.
The snapped image was taken by the Deputy Prime Minister’s new “smug” photographer during a trip to the Johnnie Walker Experience in Edinburgh last month.
It is one of more than a dozen public moments captured by Simon Walker since he was hired on a salary of £68,000.
Rayner, who has been a vocal critic of Tory ministers’ use of government photographers, has been accused of hypocrisy over the appointment.
He immediately set to work, taking Mr. Walker with him on official trips throughout the country.
In one photo, he is seen grinning at the camera, clutching a red folder as he leaves a meeting on workers’ rights.
In another, he is more candid, looking away from the lens as he speaks to firefighters at the scene of a residential blaze in Dagenham, east London, last month.
He also took note of the Deputy Prime Minister’s diplomatic efforts, taking pictures of his meeting with his Pakistani counterpart earlier this month.
Rayner left himself open to criticism in 2021 after a tweet resurfaced in which he criticised Boris Johnson’s spending on government photographers.
“The Prime Minister should be prioritising feeding the children who will go hungry during next half-term and the families who will face £1,000 cuts to Universal Credit, rather than spending more taxpayers’ money on more photographers for the sake of his own vanity,” he wrote.
In recent years it has become normal for Number 10 to employ a photographer to record the Prime Minister’s movements, but Ms Rayner is said to be the first MP to have her own photographer.
A government spokesman suggested Mr Walker was part of the department’s wider communications team rather than a “personal” hire for Ms Rayner.
“Many government departments employ official photographers to share the work of the department and ministers with the public,” he said.
“This is a public service role and he will be part of the department’s communications team.”
Although there were reports that he was earning a salary of £68,000, it is understood he was appointed to a grade seven Civil Service post in London, where he could earn a maximum salary of £66,677.
‘Show project’
His LinkedIn profile lists his job description as “Deputy Prime Minister and chief photographer for the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government”. He had previously worked as Rishi Sunak’s chief photographer at No 10.
The Conservatives have accused Rayner of a “vanity” project and the appointment risks escalating the “freebie” row that rocked the Labour leadership last week.
It also leaves Labour open to accusations of hypocrisy, as the party said in 2021 that the man hired to photograph Boris Johnson was “part of a group of smug photographers”.
Finance Minister Rachel Reeves confirmed the hiring in talks on Monday morning, the second day of the Labor Party conference, but said Mr Walker was not Ms Rayner’s “personal photographer”.
He told Times Radio: “All government departments under all governments have press officers and communications budgets. Not a personal photographer.”
Speaking to LBC he said: “All government departments have 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 government spending under control.”
Shadow treasurer John Glen said: “This is the latest in a long line of Labour ministers saying one thing and then doing another. Labour’s promise to scale back the government’s scam law was nothing more than empty talk. They would rather spend taxpayers’ money on their own vanity projects than keep pensioners warm this winter.
“After the Conservatives scrapped plans to cut civil service numbers, Labour must stop pretending that the decision to cut winter fuel allowances was nothing more than a political choice.”
A Conservative source told the Mail: “Is there a greater vanity project than the Deputy Prime Minister, with his free clothes worth thousands of pounds, his luxurious free holidays and now his publicly-paid photographer?”
A spokesperson for the Department of Housing, Communities 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 public service role and will form part of MHCLG’s communications team.”
Rayner is expected to face the possibility of an investigation by the parliamentary standards committee into the use of a $2.5 million New York flat lent by Labour’s Lord Alli.