ED Miliband has confronted his image problem head-on, insisting his politics of substance would win over David Cameron's politics of style.
The Labour leader has come in for some criticism because of his geeky image with people likening him to the cartoon character Wallace, of Wallace and Gromit fame. He was recently ridiculed after less than flattering images showed him trying to eat a bacon sandwich.
In June his personal ratings fell to the lowest ever recorded in an ICM poll. While the Prime Minister's ratings were also down, he remains well ahead of his two main rivals, particularly when voters are asked about who looks the most prime ministerial.
The expectation is that Conservative HQ, aided by the Tory Press, will, in the run-up to the General Election, focus heavily on Mr Miliband as a person and what they regard as his weakness as a leader.
But in a speech in London to launch his party's summer campaigning, he warned the focus on image was fuelling public cynicism with politicians.
"I am not from central casting," declared the Labour leader. "You can find people who are more square-jawed, more chiselled, look less like Wallace. You could find people who look better eating a bacon sandwich.
"If you want the politician from central casting, it's just not me."
He stressed that if people wanted a politician who believed taking a good picture was the most important thing, then he urged them not to vote for him.
"I believe people would quite like somebody to stand up and say there is more to politics than the photo-op."
While the Labour leader said his Tory counterpart was very good at image politics, it often belied the reality.
"If principle simply becomes replaced by expediency, then all it does is add further to cynicism; the sense that politics is just a game."
In response, Grant Shapps, the Conservative Party Chairman, accused Mr Miliband of only talking about himself.
"If he wants to be taken seriously, he should be talking about the economy and how we can secure a better future for our children and grandchildren; not why he struggles to eat a bacon sandwich," he said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article