It must have seemed like a good idea, and lots of fun, at the time.
Hair awry, white knuckles gripping the safety bar, the new Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Lisa Nandy, squeals with excitement on Blackpool’s 85mph Big One rollercoaster.
But it didn’t seem quite so thrilling when a none-too-flattering photo of the 45-year-old minister – mid-ride and open-mouthed – appeared on local news websites.
Days after footage surfaced of Angela Rayner raving in Ibiza, here was another key member of Sir Keir Starmer’s Government letting her hair down – and with seemingly similar wild abandon.
True, Ms Nandy’s department has long been known as the Ministry of Fun. But presumably her advisers feared that critics would scoff and say that, if nothing else, our Cabinet ministers know how to have a good time.
For they quickly tried to make the problem – and the photo – disappear.
Cue, one imagines, scenes of panic reminiscent of the BBC political satire The Thick Of It.
The image was originally shared by Blackpool Pleasure Beach’s publicity department, which having innocently thought it a happy snap, did not foresee the potential for a political pratfall.
Now it was being told to help expunge all trace of it.
It complied and asked news organisations to delete the image from their reports, adding darkly that it could not be used under any circumstances.
Sadly the photo is now missing from the Blackpool Gazette’s online story headlined ‘Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy takes on Big One rollercoaster at Blackpool Pleasure Beach Resort’, which chronicled her visit last weekend.
While noting she is a ‘self-confessed theme park fan’, the report said she visited the seaside resort in an official capacity and was joined by the town’s Labour MP Chris Webb and various tourism bigwigs.
In addition to riding the Big One and visiting Blackpool’s famous tower, Ms Nandy spoke to some of the Pleasure Beach’s apprentices about their work.
Marketing apprentice Houston King said: ‘It was really insightful meeting Ms Nandy.
‘I had the opportunity to talk about why I love working here and what we do not only inside the Pleasure Beach, but also for tourism on the Fylde Coast and beyond.’
Pleasure Beach Resort chief executive Amanda Thompson said: ‘It was great to have the Secretary of State visit us and see the hard work and dedication of our team.’
In contrast to Ms Nandy, her Cabinet colleague Ms Rayner brushed aside the furore over her exuberant 4am dancing in the DJ booth at an upmarket nightclub.
The Deputy Prime Minister had jetted out to party in Ibiza less than 12 hours after hosting a meeting about unsafe cladding.
One critic said the footage – which showed her in a red dress dancing, singing and pumping the air – demeaned her office.
But Ms Rayner – dubbed ‘Angela Raver’ after once boasting of all-night, vodka-fuelled rave sessions – was unrepentant.
‘I was on holiday for a couple of days,’ she said. ‘You can criticise my dancing, it is subjective, but… I take my job really seriously and you’ve got to have downtime.’
She added: ‘Yes, I’m working class, I like a dance, I like dance music. I got criticised for going to the opera [too]… I was a champagne socialist for going to the theatre.’