A photograph published by the Treasury shows Rishi Sunak and members of his ministerial team standing on the staircase of No 11 Downing Street, with the Chancellor standing on the top of the stairs.
A member of his team, Economic Secretary to the Treasury John Glen, who appears to be sitting down or squatting caught the eye of social media users, who were quick to point out the absence of a chair on the photo.
As a result, the Treasury staffer was thought by many to be floating in the air or managing to maintain a very difficult pose for the shoot.
either this guy has incredible core strength or the Treasury team has invented invisible chair technology pic.twitter.com/mpiBgj6jOJ
— Matthew Champion (@matthewchampion) March 3, 2021
— Declan Cashin (@Tweet_Dec) March 3, 2021
He's cossack dancing. pic.twitter.com/lwvhi78P1U
— Francocini 🇭🇰 (@Benzofrancocini) March 3, 2021
Another motivation for the photograph’s arrangement was said to be the height of the Chancellor, who is 1.7 m tall. Commentators suggested the PR team tried to make Sunak look taller.
Kudos to HMT team for finding a way of making Chancellor look tall. https://t.co/nh3WuWms2S
— Jill Rutter (@jillongovt) March 3, 2021
its a weird picture all round.. but much better than the one HMT did this time last year - there are some VERY tall HMT ministers... pic.twitter.com/amxbtpINMo
— Jill Rutter (@jillongovt) March 3, 2021
on the left is the Rishi Sunak with his Treasury team prior to the 2020 Budget, on the right is Rishi Sunak prior to the 2021 Budget. anyone got any ideas why he didn't pose with his team this year? pic.twitter.com/q0PUFktO8L
— Matthew Champion (@matthewchampion) March 3, 2021
(One of the motivations for doing the picture this way is surely partly that Sunak is a short chancellor with unusually tall junior ministers. Strong risk otherwise of him looking like Frodo surrounded by the Fellowship.)
— Robert Hutton (@RobDotHutton) March 3, 2021
The Treasury Flickr account posted more than a dozen of photographs of the Chancellor and the ministerial team preparing for the Budget delivery.
