Angela Rayner justifies paying a photographer £68,000 a year with public funds, stating it benefits the public

Angela Rayner has justified the expense of hiring a ‘vanity photographer’ at the cost of thousands of pounds to the public purse by explaining that people often complain about not seeing her.

The Mail previously revealed the Deputy Prime Minister hired personal snapper Simon Walker on a salary of £68,000.

Although Downing Street has employed photographers to record the Prime Minister for some years, Ms Rayner is the first deputy to be awarded her own.

Ms Rayner said she was trying to let people ‘know what you’re doing and where you are’ when she was asked about the hire on ITV’s Lorraine.

In an interview, she expressed that navigating through government procedures can occasionally feel like being overwhelmed by details, as she recounted her initial months in office.

Responding to inquiries about the photographer who follows her, Ms. Rayner explained, ‘There’s a delicate balance to strike because there are times when people say, “We never see her”, or “She’s just doing that for a photo opportunity”.’

‘So you kind of try and strike the right balance between letting people know what you’re doing and where you are.

‘And then there’s others that will then criticise and say, “well, you’re just trying to project an image of what you’re doing”.

‘So it’s kind of trying to strike the balance between seriousness of, here’s me, this is what I’m doing.’

Earlier this year it was reported that the photographer had been hired by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government as part of the department’s communication team.

While in opposition, Ms Rayner was critical of former prime minister Boris Johnson’s three taxpayer-funded photographers.

In 2021, she said: ‘The public will be rightly questioning why there is apparently no limit on the money that can be found to pay for a coterie of vanity photographers for the prime minister.’

Ms Rayner, who serves as Secretary of State at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, told the programme that being in government can sometimes ‘feel a bit like you’re bogged down in the weeds’.

Asked whether there was anything that had frustrated her since getting into government, Ms Rayner said: ‘I think the frustration for me is I always want things done … yesterday, and I’ve always been like that. I’m eager to prove that I could do it and also make change … and government doesn’t work as quickly as that.

‘You have to go through lots of processes, lots of consultations that you have to do before you introduce new legislation, so sometimes that can feel a bit like you’re bogged down in the weeds.’

It comes as in September Ms Rayner acknowledged that voters were ‘angry’ about revelations that she and other senior figures, including Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, have taken thousands of pounds’ worth of gifts, such as clothes, holidays and tickets, from wealthy donors.

She said donations had been ‘a feature of our politics for a very long time’, but insisted she had not broken any rules. ‘I was from a very working-class background,’ she said.

‘To stand as Deputy Leader as you say, to get that position, I had to accept donations in order for me to run that campaign, because it’s a very expensive way of doing our politics.’

She suggested the controversy was caused partly because she had been ‘over-transparent’ about the gifts she has received.

Official Downing Street photographers are a relatively recent phenomenon. David Cameron, who was the first to appoint one, had his paid for by the Conservative Party.

More recently, they have been funded by the taxpayer.

Earlier this year, a spokesman for Ms Rayner’s Housing, Communities and Local Government department 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 department’s communications team.’