Ugly female politicians need restyling, says Portas

RETAIL guru Mary Portas, who is advising David Cameron on waysto revive Britain's high streets, has made a bid for another government role - to restyle the "ugly" female members of the Cabinet and "put a bit of sex and glamour in there".

Portas made her comments in an interview with celebrity magazine Heat. "If I were PM I'd bloody restyle all those women," she said. "I mean, the female cabinet, what an ugly bunch. I would restyle them. I couldn't look at them."

Portas, who came to prominence in a reality show called Mary Queen of Shops in which she helps struggling shop-owners, is currently working on plans to halt the decline of the high street by reversing the increase in empty shops. Her recommendations will be published this autumn.

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Cameron probably wishes she'd kept her sartorial recommendations to herself.

In her interview she conjures up an image of the likes of Home Secretary Theresa May hurriedly slipping on her best kitten heels and jewellery before attending meetings with the high street Tsar.

"I go in for meetings now and they do dress up," she says. "But I just want to go, 'Pleeease. No. Not that necklace. Not that skirt.'"

Portas's prescription? Look to the Continent: "You look at French women and they're, like, wow, aren't they? What do we have? I'd say let's just put a bit of sex and glamour in there."

May is one of four women in the Cabinet. The others are Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman, Minister without Portfolio Baroness Warsi and Secretary of State for Wales Cheryl Gillan.

But why the preoccupation with women? Some might say Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles or Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke would benefit from a makeover too.