She's been hitting the headlines for her leadership bid and strong LGBT comments, but Esther McVey was once a cheery blonde TV presenter.
The 50-year-old, who is Merseyside's only Tory MP, previously worked in the media presenting and producing programmes such as GMTV and BBC science show How Do They Do That?.
Esther even did a presenting stint on children's channel CBBC.
And yesterday, her media career came to a head when Piers Morgan asked Lorraine Kelly if she remembered Esther from their GMTV days.
However, Lorraine's pursed reply "Yeah, yes I do, right coming up at 8:30.." went viral.
We take a look back at Esther's time in the showbiz world and see how the young roving reporter turned into a controversial cabinet minister.
CBBC
Following a postgraduate course in Radio Journalism at City University London, Esther landed her debut TV role on children's channel CBBC.
Working for eight weeks as a co-presenter on But First This in 1991, a fresh-faced Esther looks unrecognisable with chopstick blonde curls.
She hosted the programme alongside BBC Somerset's Simon Parkin and Philippa Forrester.
Reportage
The first public hint that Esther had an interest in politics was on BBC's cutting edge youth show, Reportage.
Presenting the show alongside, Dr. David Dunkley Gyimah and Hardeep Singh Kohli, the BBC show was aimed at highlighting current affairs issues to a teenage market.
And whilst it produced a number of radical interviews, Dr Gyimah said in an interview with Vice :
"As trendy as it was,Reportage peaked around 1m viewers on its lucky days; 1.5 on exceptions and around 700,000 on average. It was a flop in rating terms..."
How Do They Do That?
Joining Eamonn Holmes in 1996 for How Do They Do That?'s final series, Esther specialised in engineering, organization, and special effects.
The series ended in 1997, with Esther having presented only one series compared to Eamonn who had hosted the show since series two.
The Heaven and Earth Show
Looking at spiritual and moral issues, Esther presented a number of episodes of The Heaven and Earth Show in 1999 and 2000.
One of her first stints on the programme saw her meet met actress and comedian Dame Thora Hird to talk about the 'funny side of life'.
Over the course of a year, she also interviewed Sean Hughes, Sir Terry Wogan and Jenny Agutter.
GMTV
Perhaps her standout moment in her television career, Esther presented Good Morning Television on ITV.
Filling in for Fiona Phillips, who was on maternity leave at the time, Esther sat alongside Eamonn Holmes to read the morning news.
One of her more notable moments on the show was her interview with Martine McCutcheon in Southern Spain about the music video for her single 'I've Got You'.
