Angela Rayner has hired a taxpayer-funded “vanity” photographer to chronicle her work in Government.

The Deputy Prime Minister is facing fresh scrutiny over her judgement after details of the appointment emerged on Sunday night.

Simon Walker was reportedly hired on a salary of £68,000, more than twice the national average. He will also take photos for Ms Rayner’s department, the Ministry of Housing.

It has become normal in recent years for No 10 to hire a photographer to record the Prime Minister’s movements. However, Ms Rayner is said to be the first deputy to have her own.

The Government has insisted Mr Walker is part of the department’s wider communications team, rather than a “personal” hire for Ms Rayner.

But the Tories have accused the Deputy Prime Minister of a “vanity” project, pointing back to other handouts she has accepted from donors.

The revelations threaten to escalate the “freebies” row, which has rocked the Labour leadership over the past week.

‘It’s not a personal photographer’

It also opens Labour up to accusations of hypocrisy, as the party said in 2021 that the man hired to photograph Boris Johnson was “part of a coterie of vanity photographers”.

On Sunday night, the Daily Mail reported that Mr Walker had been appointed chief photographer to the Deputy Prime Minister and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, confirmed the hire during a round of interviews on Monday morning, the second day of the Labour conference.

But she insisted Mr Walker was not Ms Rayner’s “personal photographer”.

She told Times Radio: “All government departments under all governments have press officers and communications budgets.

“It’s not a personal photographer.”

Speaking to LBC, she said: “My understanding is it’s also to support the work of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.”

“And all government departments have comms teams, communications teams, to promote the campaigns, the policies and the work of government departments.

“We are reducing the budget for the Government Communications Department because I do want to get a grip on Government spending.”

‘This is a civil service role’

A Tory source told the Mail: “Are there any greater vanity projects than the Deputy Prime Minister with her thousands of pounds of free clothes, her luxury free holiday, and now her publicly paid photographer?”

It comes as Ms Rayner faces the possibility of an investigation by the parliamentary standards commissioner over the use of a $2.5million New York apartment lent by Lord Alli, the Labour peer.

The Telegraph revealed that the Conservatives have written to Daniel Greenberg, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, seeking an inquiry.

The Tory letter claims that Ms Rayner’s “failure to properly register” the New York flat donation means the House of Commons code of conduct may have been breached.

During an interview on BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Ms Rayner denied any wrongdoing, saying: “I think I followed the rules.”

Addressing the backlash, she added: “I get that people are frustrated, in particular the circumstances that we’re in, but donations for gifts and hospitality and monetary donations have been a feature of our politics for a very long time.

“People can look it up and see what people have had donations for, and the transparency is really important.”

A spokesman for Ms Rayner’s housing department told the Mail: “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.”