[youngian]

First world problem: I don’t believe voters take scruffy politicians asking to spend their money seriously. But how do you make the same criticism about Corbyn and Johnson needing to smarten themselves to raise their credibility about a female politician without being accused of shallow sexism? Which I have after noting Dodds needs a makeover. I’m not a Carrie Bradshaw fashionista nitpicking.

[Abernathy]

I don't think you can really say that Anneliese is scruffy. I know she's no glamourpuss, but she's presentable enough.

[bluebellnutter]

It's not about looking smart so much as looking "professional", which is a fairly standard workplace dress requirement across the board.

[Andy McDandy]

Sadly, the world not being perfect, she will be held up over her appearance and fashion choices in a way most male politicians won't be (although the Times once said that if David Cameron wore a dress and high heels, they'd comment on it).

Although it should be said that not all women in politics get this treatment. It tends to be those who are either highly conventionally attractive, or who set themselves up as fashion plates (Theresa May, Sarah Champion for instance). I've not seen much discussion over the years of the sartorial choices of Clare Short, Ruth Davidson, Harriet Harman, Priti Patel, Margaret Beckett etc. Believe it or not, sensible business suit doesn't generate that much coverage.

[Boiler]

It's not about looking smart so much as looking "professional", which is a fairly standard workplace dress requirement across the board.

Thank God I don't work in an environment like that then. I'm paid for what I know, not what I look like. Until recently I wore a coat with a huge tear in the back, exposing the lining. A mate of mine said "your coat's looking pretty bad" to which I replied "I'm curating that tear.".

The response? "Smashing it."

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Until the very end of my career I usually insisted on a short-sleeved shirt (silk Hawaiian in my youth, chinos and no tie. When asked to 'smarten up' I refused, and my 'reputation' allowed me to do so.

I also had a 3 piece suit with bowtie phase, and a time when I only wore thornproof tweed.

And I hate school uniform with vehemence.

[youngian]

It's not about looking smart so much as looking "professional", which is a fairly standard workplace dress requirement across the board.

Annaliese looks professional if you're a professional sociology lecturer and this is not a problem for an arts or technology minister. But not if you're aspiring to be chancellor. Its shallow nonsense of course but that's the reality.

[Abernathy]

It's not about looking smart so much as looking "professional", which is a fairly standard workplace dress requirement across the board.

Annaliese looks professional if you're a professional sociology lecturer and this is not a problem for an arts or technology minister. But not if you're aspiring to be chancellor. Its shallow nonsense of course but that's the reality.

Eh? What a load of old bollocks. She looks absolutely fine. The notion that if you're a woman, you need to dress a particular way if you're one type of shadow minister but not another is plainly absurd.

I sense that this isn't your own view, Ian, but you might be right about it popping up in a Jan Moir or Sarah Vine column any day now.

[crabcakes_windermere]

I think she looks like a person as opposed to a product. Sunak - as the most obvious comparison - with his instagram-friendly photo shoots and signed promises looks like he's trying to sell a lifestyle app. Or more accurately with his getting people out into pubs and restaurants with a pandemic still raging, a deathstyle app.

She also scored points with me in her interview the other day when she refused to rate Sunak's budget out of 10, because that reduces it down so much as to be useless plus gifts the Tories a soundbite one way or the other.

[Arrowhead]

This is the sort of gubbins I believe Ian was drawing our attention to. Expect to see plenty more of this sort of thing over the coming years.

It really does look as if Sunak has his own personal photographer on hand 24/7, doesn't it?

[oboogie]

Appearances shouldn't matter.
But they do.
Just as Corbyn's sports jacket mattered and needed to be replaced with a business suit.
We live in a visual world. We all know about JFK and Nixon; Brown, Cameron and Clegg. People, ie the electorate, do judge by appearances and we can jump up and down and say they shouldn't and it's not important as much as we like, meanwhile they'll carry on judging by appearances.

[The Red Arrow]

It really does look as if Sunak has his own personal photographer on hand 24/7, doesn't it?

He has.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

http://www.simonwalkerphoto.com

[Abernathy]

Well, we've all seen that trick - hunt down the most unflattering image that you can find of the person you want to look bad and place it next to the most flattering picture of the other person you can obtain. Pretty sure that was the whole basis of the Miliband "bacon buttie" excoriation.

Once Corbyn eventually got shot of his smelly old sports jacket and got a smart suit, it wasn't an issue any more, though he could have had a shave, and maybe fixed the squinty specs. Oboogie's right about the visual world thing, though, and though Keir Starmer is matinee-idol immaculate, Johnson is (purposefully) as scruffy as fuck and he gets away with it because it's part of his increasingly questionable image.

Maybe we should get Barbara Follett back in to give Anneliese a bit of a makeover. That might have the additional benefit of getting the Trots frothing at the gash some more.

[Tubby Isaacs]

That Sunak guy looks smart. Who's his boss? Must be someone who looks even smarter. And I bet the strategic advisor of that boss looks terrific too.

There's sexism here (Ken Clarke didn't dress smartly as Chancellor but that made him a "character") but I think she could look smarter, pretty easily, same as Jez did.