‘I cannot contact bread whether it is moist’: Kemi Badenoch sparks Westminster meals struggle

In a row more likely to generate extra debate than a lot of their exchanges over the dispatch field, the prime minister has hailed the standard sandwich as “an excellent British establishment” after Kemi Badenoch denounced the lunchtime staple as “not actual meals”.

In an interview with the Spectator, the chief of the opposition channelled her inside Gordon Gekko to declare: “Lunch is for wimps. I’ve meals introduced in and I work and eat on the similar time. There’s no time…Typically I’ll get a steak,” she stated.

Determined for a slice of the motion, Starmer’s official spokesperson weighed in to reply, saying the prime minister was “stunned” to listen to that Badenoch had a steak introduced in for lunch and he as an alternative most popular a cheese toastie.

Badenoch had earlier made clear her distaste for bread-based snacks. “I’m not a sandwich individual, I don’t assume sandwiches are an actual meals, it’s what you have got for breakfast,” she advised the Spectator. “I cannot contact bread whether it is moist.”

Starmer’s spokesperson responded: “I believe he was stunned to listen to that the chief of the opposition has a steak introduced in for lunch. The prime minister is sort of pleased with a sandwich lunch.”

Requested what the prime minister’s favorite sandwich was, they added: “I believe he enjoys a tuna sandwich and infrequently a cheese toastie.”

Badenoch swiftly attacked the prime minister’s response to her remarks in a publish on social media, writing: “The PM has time to answer my jokes about lunch … however no time for the farmers who produce our meals.”

It isn’t the primary time Westminster has been convulsed over sandwich selections. The then housing minister Dominic Raab hit the headlines over the past Conservative authorities when it was revealed that he purchased precisely the identical lunch each day – a Pret a Manger hen and bacon baguette, a “superfruit” pot and a vitamin volcano smoothie.

A survey for Hovis earlier this 12 months discovered that the nation’s favorite sandwich was a BLT, adopted by hen salad and tuna mayonnaise.

Lunch selections weren’t the one cultural dividing line that Badenoch sought to attract within the interview.

The Tory chief later attacked Starmer for saying that he would possibly watch Love Truly over Christmas, including that she prefers watching Die Exhausting over the festive interval.

“There’s a British prime minister who’s messing round and isn’t doing the international coverage correctly, persons are dishonest and there’s a lot occurring there should you transfer away from the smiley, pleased, tacky stuff,” she advised the Spectator.