New Green Party MP Hannah Spencer has been dubbed the ‘Honourable Member for Instagram’ after she captured her first few days in Parliament with a series of ‘selfies’.
The 34-year-old, who won last week’s Gorton and Denton by-election, is said to have mixed being an MP ‘with being an influencer’ since joining the House of Commons.
It came after she was spotted taking a series of snaps of herself in Westminster after being sworn in as an MP on Monday afternoon.
This included when she joined a group of other MPs doing the ‘cha-cha-cha’ in Portcullis House on Wednesday morning amid the deepening Middle East crisis.
The dance event sparked a furious row as other parliamentarians criticised the sight of their colleagues twirling in Parliament while fears grow of a global conflict in the wake of retailiatory action by Iran to US and Israeli strikes.
Ms Spencer’s by-election victory over Labour saw her become only the sixth-ever Green MP.
She used social media to document her journey from Manchester – where she worked as a plumber and recently-qualified plasterer – to London on Sunday as she prepared to join the Commons.
Remarking on her apparent fondness for ‘selfies’ during her first few days in the role, Reform UK MP Lee Anderson told the Daily Mail: ‘Hannah Spencer’s first week in Parliament shows just how seriously she’s taking the job: not at all.’
New Green Party MP Hannah Spencer has been dubbed the ‘Honourable Member for Instagram’ after she captured her first few days in Parliament with a series of ‘selfies’.
The 34-year-old, who won last week’s Gorton and Denton by-election, is said to have mixed being an MP ‘with being an influencer’ since joining the House of Commons.
Ms Spencer took a ‘selfie’ wth Green leader Zack Polanski outside the Houses of Parliament on Monday
The new MP also snapped herself taking part in a dance event in Parliament on Wednesday morning
Mr Anderson added: ‘It seems the ‘Honourable Member for Instagram’ may have confused being a serving politician with being an influencer.
‘If she is a proper plumber, she needs to stop taking selfies, get the spanners out and sort the drains out in the Palace of Westminster because it stinks rotten on my floor.’
But Ms Spencer told the Mail: ‘I don’t think Parliament should be closed off to the eyes of the world and I’m proud to be able to reach hundreds of thousands of people through social media.
‘I meant it when I said I’d open this place up to more people!’
In her by-election victory speech in the early hours of last Friday, Ms Spencer promised to ‘work hard’ for her new constituents in Gorton and Denton.
‘One vote on one night is not something I will take for granted or assume will happen again. I will earn your trust,’ she told those who chose her as their new MP.
She added: ‘And to those who didn’t vote for me: I will always work hard for you, and I will always be honest, and I will always be decent.’
