The 'Perfect' politician

When the camera loves you it doesn’t matter whether you are on stage or on Newsnight the effect is the same - you grab attention.

And in recent years politicians have, somewhere along the way, been selected and elected partly because of how their looks impacts the public.

Pitt, Clooney, Washington, Bloom, Obama, Cameron/Clegg, Afriyie, Umunna, all stars of the stage – Hollywood and the political pulpit – all at the top and all better than average looking.

And where good looks go others follow. Is it any wonder that Chuka Umunna MP has one the largest twitter following among UK MPs?

Aside from his obvious intellectual capabilities, it is his stand out good looks that has prompted a complimentary onslaught from Labour MP Tom Watson. In his blog about party shenanigans for Labour Uncut today, Watson writes:

“Take potential future leader, Chuka Umunna, for example. Intelligent, dynamic, articulate. Clean shaven, he’s perhaps the most beautiful man who has ever sat on the green benches. He’s perfect. He’ll have his own statue with a brass plaque one day…..

……And the plain truth for us veterans of the Labour benches is that British politics is no longer showbiz for ugly people. We have genuinely attractive-in-every-way superstars in the PLP now. They’re going to make a difference”.

We know Mr Umunna is politically talented, he is dubbed the British Obama.

But take a look at the Commons – the front rows are filling up with the bold and beautiful. Can good looks really pave the way from the back to the front benches?