Canberra - Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was given two left feet in a poor Photoshop effort that put shiny new shoes on his feet in a family portrait with his wife and children posted on his official website.
The Photoshop fail, dubbed "shoegate," has gone viral since it was pointed out on social media overnight, with Morrison himself admitting that his department had tried to scrub out his old trainers and replace them with a pair of new white shoes.
Twitter user "Lukerhn" posted the photo on Tuesday night, saying it was Australian politics' "Story of 2019."
"Our latest PM (ScoMo) had nice white shoes photoshopped onto his feet for his official http://pm.gov.au site?! Yup. Regular bloke. Our tax dollars hard at work. #shoegate," he wrote.
The original photo, with Morrison wearing old trainers appeared in his 2018 Christmas video. The Photoshop error in the new portrait was glaringly evident as the left shoe was posted on his right foot.
#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
Dug some more, found the OG dirty shoes in a Fiji Times article… LOL #shoegate #auspol https://t.co/DW3FgsJE7f pic.twitter.com/V4RUeGlaed
— Luke (@lukerhn) January 8, 2019
The prime minister's website later reverted to the photo with original shoes.
Morrison on Wednesday said on his Twitter that he did not ask for the edit, with a message for his department:
"I didn't ask for the shoeshine, but if you must Photoshop, please focus on the hair (lack thereof), not the feet!" he said, alongside a smiling emoji and a photo of his old sneakers with blue stripes.
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
"Here they are in all their glory - my footwear of choice whenever I can get out of a suit."
Morrison became prime minister in August after an internal leadership coup. In September, he was forced to delete and apologise after he tweeted a video of a parliament session played over rapper Fatman Scoop's song "Be Faithful," which has some explicit lyrics.