British Prime Minister David Cameron defended taking a “selfie” during Tuesday’s Nelson Mandela memorial service with President Barack Obama and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt.
During his weekly question and answer session in the House of Commons, lawmaker Martin Horwood pressed the prime minister on the “selfie,” The UK Telegraph reports.
“Has the prime minister had the opportunity to discuss international mobile phone usage with any European heads of government in the last day or so?” Horwood asked to chuckles.
“Perhaps you could say in a round about way, and perhaps in my defense you should always remember the television cameras are always on,” Cameron responded.
He defended himself further but saying Mandela was a man who brought people together.
“In my defense I’d say that Nelson Mandela played an extraordinary role in his life and in his death in bringing people together,” Cameron continued. “And so of course when a member of the Kinnock family asked me for a photograph I thought it was only polite to say yes.”
Thorning-Schmidt is married to the son of former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock.