Scott Morrison wades into shoegate to defend his footwear

The PM says his daggy old trainers are just fine with him after his department was caught out photoshopping his footwear for an official photo.

Before and after the dodgy photoshopping. Picture: Twitter.

Scott Morrison says his daggy old trainers are just fine with him after his department was caught out photoshopping his footwear for his official website photo.

Social media lit up yesterday after a picture of the Prime Minister on his official website differed from an original version of the photo released on Christmas Eve, with his trainers with blue tinges magically transformed into sparkling all-white shoes.

The photoshop also appeared to go wrong, with the Prime Minister appearing as if he was wearing two left shoes.

#auspol story of 2019: our latest PM (ScoMo) had nice white shoes photoshopped onto his feet for his official https://t.co/eXNtcX7xTa site?! Yup. Regular bloke. Our tax dollars hard at work. #shoegate pic.twitter.com/kA0gG0yy9L

— Luke (@lukerhn) January 8, 2019

Mr Morrison took to Twitter this morning to say he did not ask for the photoshop and that he was proud of his faithful footwear.

“Message to my Department (PM & C): I didn’t ask for the shoeshine, but if you must Photoshop, please focus on the hair (lack thereof), not the feet!,” he tweeted.

“Here they are in all their glory — my footwear of choice whenever I can get out of a suit.”

Message to my Department (PM&C): I didn’t ask for the shoeshine, but if you must Photoshop, please focus on the hair (lack thereof), not the feet! 😀
Here they are in all their glory - my footwear of choice whenever I can get out of a suit. pic.twitter.com/hKKUstnArq

— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) January 8, 2019

A spokesman for Mr Morrison yesterday confirmed it was PM & C that made the change to the Prime Minister’s footwear, and not his office.

“The white shoes photo was doctored by the PM & C department (Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet) without the knowledge of, or the authorisation from, the PM or the PM’s office.

“The PM’s office has asked the department to replace the photo with the original.”

As of this morning, the Prime Minister’s portrait on pm.gov.au has restored the trainers to their full, original glory.