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Rachel Reeves has defended Angela Rayner in a row over the deputy prime minister reportedly hiring a vanity photographer to publicise her work.
The chancellor said it is normal for government departments to have communications budgets and stressed the photographer would not just promote Ms Rayner, but the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) as a whole.
On Monday morning she told Times Radio: “All government departments under all governments have press officers and communications budgets. It’s not a personal photographer. It’s to promote the campaigning work of governments.”
It came after it emerged deputy PM and housing minister Ms Rayner had hired the photographer, making her the first deputy prime minister to have one.
She had previously criticised Boris Johnson for hiring “a coterie of vanity photographers” after it emerged there were three photographers working in Downing Street.
But she now has her own snapper earning a minimum salary of £57,000 per year.
The MHCLG 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 MHCLG’s communications team.”
It is understood that Ms Rayner was not involved in the recruitment process for the photographer.
Ms Reeves also defended Labour from wider allegations of sleaze and cronyism centred on ministers’ repeated acceptance of gifts and freebies including clothes, concert tickets and hospitality at football matches.
“As long as things are declared properly so people can see if there’s any conflict of interest I think it’s fine to go to the football and to go to a pop concert,” Ms Reeves said. “I don’t begrudge people doing that.”
She stressed the importance of making the proper declarations so the information is in the public domain.
And the chancellor used the morning broadcast round, before delivering her speech to the Labour conference, to defend her own acceptance of £7,500 of clothing donations from friend Juliet Rosenfeld.
“Juliet and me have been friends for a long time, and she said to me about a year-and-a-half ago ‘I want to help you in the election campaign and the thing I’d really like to do is make sure that for big events and for the campaign trail, you’re smart and well turned out’,” she explained. “I really appreciated that, she’s made a big difference to me. That’s not something that I’m going to do in government.”
Source: independent.co.uk
