When he was Labour leader, the Energy Secretary Ed Miliband mocked Tory Prime Minister David Cameron for hiring a vanity photographer at public expense.
Miliband kicked up so much fuss that No 10 announced the photographer would not be paid out of the public purse. The Conservative Party paid the salary and costs instead.
Now Mr Miliband, the architect of the Government’s dash for Net Zero by 2029 which it is estimated will cost the taxpayer £37 billion, is advertising for his very own personal photographer. The public will pay the £50,000-plus pro-rata salary package.
The decision to hire a photographer is a sign Miliband is determined to have better control of his image. In 2014 he made the calamitous mistake of allowing photographers to capture him eating his breakfast at the flower market in New Covent Garden.
The photo was designed to try to banish Mr Miliband’s ‘geeky’ image. But the unedifying photographs of Miliband attempting to eat a bacon sandwich went viral.
When Miliband’s advisers saw what was happening, they took the sandwich away from him. But it was too late. The damage was done. Far from showing Miliband as a down-to-earth man of the people, he seemed awkward, error-prone and incapable of performing simple tasks.
Having an in-house photographer at the energy department, however, will enable him to delete the photos he does not like.
The tradition of senior ministers having an official photographer is comparatively new. Last year the Mail disclosed Angela Rayner had become the first Deputy Prime Minister to have her own photographer, on a salary of almost £68,000. Rayner was accused of hypocrisy as she had been critical of Boris Johnson when he had a photographer in Downing Street.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband is advertising for his very own personal photographer. The public will pay the £50,000-plus pro-rata salary package
Miliband shelters under an umbrella. The decision to hire a photographer is a sign Miliband is determined to have better control of his image
Miliband at the 2024 Labour Party Conference. The Department for Energy Security insists that the photographer will work for all ministers and not just Miliband
In 2014 Miliband made the calamitous mistake of allowing photographers to capture him eating his breakfast at the flower market in New Covent Garden
When Tony Blair sought one as Prime Minister in 1997, the move was blocked by his Cabinet Secretary Sir Richard Wilson on the grounds it was an inappropriate use of public money.
Shortly after he became Prime Minister in 2010, David Cameron revealed he had been given approval for an official photographer. Ed Miliband at Prime Minister’s Questions asked if it was ‘a wise judgement when [the Prime Minister] is telling everyone to tighten their belts’.
Bruised by the hostile public reaction, at a time when the Government was embarking on an austerity programme, Mr Cameron announced the photographer was coming off the public purse because it sent out ‘the wrong signal’.
The advertisement for a photographer from Miliband’s department comes just as Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, is ordering ministers to prepare for public spending cuts in the run up to the Office for Budget Responsibility verdict on the public finances on March 26.
The Department for Energy Security insists that the photographer will work for all ministers and not just Miliband. ‘It is a flexi role and part-time so they will not be paid the full advertised rate,’ said a spokeswoman.
Richard Holden, the shadow paymaster general, said: ‘It wasn’t long ago that Red Ed was attacking David Cameron for having an official photographer.’
Another senior Tory source added: ‘It’s a classic case of do as I say, not as I do.’
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