New school photos for Shropshire's posing MPs
They cost the taxpayer £10,000 – that’s about £15 for every member of the House of Commons.
Not that every MP took part in the start of term school photo, part of a revamp of Parliament’s website in which people can log on and take a look at their representative in all their glory.
While five of our six Shropshire and Mid Wales MPs were lined up and snapped on camera, MP for Montgomeryshire Glyn Davies managed to get out of the chore.
In fact, he claimed he hadn’t been aware that the photographs were being taken – and joked: “Even if I had known, I am not sure that I would have bothered.”
The photographs were commissioned to refresh the Commons’ staid image, and have gone viral on social media,
While our MPs have been silent on their snaps, other members have complained to parliamentary authorities over the way they have come out. Comments have included a complaint that the photographs make them look “like the most dysfunctional set of secondary school staff ever”. While schools will bring in a local photographer to record their roll, the House of Commons decided to employ celebrity portrait artist Chris McAndrew. He has snapped everyone from the rapper Snoop Dogg to the actress Charlotte Rampling.
MPs in Shropshire and Mid Wales followed the general trend of both male and female members in wearing blue.
While some took the exercise light-heartedly, posing with broad smiles, others kept their faces stern.
And Ludlow MP Philip Dunne and Wrekin’s Mark Pritchard decided to mix things up by folding arms and putting a hand in a pocket.
While our MPs’ pictures are the epitome of respectability, other MPs are not so happy. There have have apparently been several requests from MPs to have their portraits retaken – and at least one has demanded to have their original picture taken off the Commons’ website.
A Commons spokeswoman said: “MPs who wish to have their photo retaken can let us know and will be added to the list to have their portrait taken after recess.”
