Shirtlifter?

From, February 4th Sunday Telegraph magazine:

"Take James Northcote [in TV show Party Animals], the shadow Home Officer minister played by Patrick Baladi. He is, in the words of one of our characters, 'frigthfully driven and on-message, keeps an ethnic and a shirtlifter in his office.'"

Now I'm pretty sure I know what an "ethnic" is, but what is a "shirtlifter"? Can one character be both things?