I make a pretty decent cup of tea, I always remove the bag before adding milk and I regularly get compliments. Yesterday my skills were put to the test when I made a cuppa for Leader of The Labour Party, Ed Miliband.
 

 
I received a call on Saturday morning and was sent to Central London with a very odd challenge. I had to illustrate a concept that came from the newsroom. They wanted to run with the headline “What have they been putting in Ed’s tea?”. Miliband had just ended a successful period, with his party making gains at the local elections and with his opposite number David Cameron getting battered at the Leveson Inquiry.
 
The paper had already cleared the idea with him. Surprising after they compared him to the plasticine star of Wallace and Grommit just a few weeks earlier. It’s worth a read too; here.
 
My very specific challenge was directed to the point I needed to find the right cup. A quick hunt on Putney High Street and I’d found some mugs, whittling it down to a choice of two, I eventually plumped for a classic, institutional white cup. Better still, I found it in a pound shop, so I was quid’s in.
 

 
Having set up my lights and shot a few test frames, Ed arrived and I prepared his tea so we could get down to taking some pictures. We mostly talked about… Tea! and my choice of mug as opposed to the blue ones available at the venue. I only had about 5 minutes but that was plenty to pose him up differently and make sure I had what I needed.
 
Aside for some shifting cloud cover which forced me to relight him, the shoot went well and is in today’s paper. Read the story for The Independent on Sunday by Paul Vallely here.
 
So, with my status as a quality tea maker upheld, I can now confirm the Leader of the Opposition takes “A dash of milk, no sugar” and more importantly noted “It’s a lovely cup”. He drank the lot!