Oakham and Rutland Local News

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Monday, January 13, 2014

MPs splurge £250,000 of public money on 'expensive' vanity portraits

MPs splurge £250,000 of public money on 'expensive' vanity portraits

Tax payers' fund the ultimate MP vanity project – having specially commissioned portraits of themselves painted by the UK's leading artists.

According to an exclusive report published by the Evening Standard, these include  spends of £10,000 on a portrait of Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, £4,000 to preserve Foreign Secretary William Hague in oils and £8,000 for a painting of Kenneth Clarke.
Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington Diane Abbott is said to have set the public funds back £11,750 for a seemingly topless oil painting of herself, while Dennis Skinner and Tony Benn each sat for portraits at costs of £2,180 and £2,000 respectively.