The best politician food fails: From Theresa May’s chippy cone to Ed Miliband’s bacon blunder

For politicians, it’s not just what comes out of your mouth that’s painstakingly scrutinised, but what goes in it too.

Those who grace the corridors of the commons have long used food as a political ploy to seem relatable, but being photographed while tucking into a snack is the stuff of nightmares for anyone who wouldn’t normally be caught dead scoffing a sausage roll.

It’s a risky trade off: eating a local delicacy during a visit to your constituency may seem like a failsafe way to project a populist image, but it can also reveal just how out of touch our politicians are, as many are left flustered from the simple act of eating normally.

Yesterday, former Chancellor Rishi Sunak faced a fast-food failure during an appearance on ITV’s Good Morning show, where he confidently revealed his favourite McDonald’s order, despite not having been available on the menu for years.

The Tory leader hopeful told presenters that he enjoys eating the food chain’s breakfast wrap with his daughters, but this seemingly safe admission turned into a culinary blunder when viewers pointed out that the breakfast item was stripped off the menu in March 2020.

Politicians are under even more pressure to distance themselves from their upper class habits during the cost of living crisis, and food remains a charged topic of conversation, particularly when Tory MP Lee Anderson blames food poverty on a ‘lack of cooking skills’.

As a form of public service, we’ve looked back at all the gastronomic gaffes that have left politicians squirming – from Theresa May being dumbfounded when faced with a cone of chips, to Ed Miliband’s fate-sealing bacon sandwich.

Theresa May

During a campaign visit to Cornwall in 2017, former Prime Minister Theresa May was mocked for looking incredibly uncomfortable while tucking into a cone of chips.

Despite being a seaside staple, it appeared May was offended by the prospect of eating the snack without a knife and fork, as she was pictured sheepishly picking at a single chip during the visit, with a grimace on her face.

Others theorised that May showed disdain for the chippy treat due to having type 1 diabetes, as the unexpected meal could cause health consequences.

The unfortunate images show the former Conservative leader looking very awkward while holding her chips and hot drink, and did not go down well with Cornish people who wondered why she hadn’t plumped for a pasty.

David Cameron

Another campaign trail blunder, former Prime Minister David Cameron tried so hard to avoid sloppy eating habits while eating a hot dog that he chose to dissect it with a knife and fork instead.

Haunted by the photos of Ed Miliband scoffing on a bacon sarnie earlier the same year, Cameron went to extreme lengths to appear normal at a family BBQ in Dorset, but ended up being scorned for snacking on the finger food with cutlery.

The politician was allegedly so concerned about being filmed while eating, that he paused before taking a bite of the hot dog in order to wait for TV cameras to leave.

Unfortunately this plan didn’t work and Cameron was snapped eating strangely nonetheless.

Ed Miliband

Perhaps the most famous political food fail of all time, the former Labour party leader Ed Miliband became an internet meme after a photograph of him scoffing down on a bacon sandwich went viral in 2014.

The images proved to be rather unflattering for a politician concerned with maintaining dignity and grace the day before local elections began. Miliband was snapped with food hanging out the corner of his mouth, before puckering up for another bite.

The awkward photo-op did nothing for Miliband’s political image, with many claiming that the bacon sandwich blunder was part of the reason he lost the general election in 2015 – something which he strongly denies.

John Selywn Gummer

You’d be forgiven for thinking that an Agricultural minister would be in good stead to avoid a food-related failure during a Mad Cow Disease outbreak, but John Selywn Gummer proved us all wrong in a daring move that left many people stunned back in 1990.

According to DevonLive, Gummer fed his daughter beef in front of press cameras in a bold attempt to prove that UK beef was safe to eat. The photos emerged three years after Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy had been found in British cattle, but before a fatal brain disease in humans was linked to eating BSE-infected beef.

The former MP is now a member of the House of Lords, and claimed at the time that ‘all evidence’ pointed to the beef being safe.

The culinary catastrophe feels reminiscent of Boris Johnson’s decision to shake hands with Covid patients on a hospital ward during the pandemic, despite strong warnings against physical contact from the science panel Sage.

George Osborne

The former chancellor’s endeavour to seem relatable when tweeting a photo of himself chomping on a takeaway burger seriously backfired in 2013, when hundreds of people mocked his ‘snobbish’ decision to order a gourmet patty from upmarket food chain Byron – the night before a budget speech.

After the damming image made the front page of many newspapers, Osborne tried to defend his pricey food order by claiming that McDonald’s didn’t deliver. This only made matters worse as it later emerged that Byron does not deliver either, and that Treasury staff were sent on a late night dash to collect the meal from Waterloo station.

At the time, Osborne argued that he was new to Twitter and did not expect the image to go down so terribly. “There I am working late on my speech, and I’ve got a takeaway hamburger, but it puts you on the front page of the Sun. It’s an occupational hazard,” he said.

Boris Johnson

In another food delivery fail, Boris Johnson came under fire last year after after spending thousands of pounds on luxury food orders that were ‘smuggled in’ to Downing Street.

As reported by the Mail, the Prime Minister splurged £12,500 on gourmet meals from organic food shop Daylesford – 30 giant boxes containing up to 100 meals to be precise.

The extravagant deliveries left a bitter taste in many people’s mouths, particularly as the news emerged while Johnson delivered a meagre 1% pay rise for NHS staff and lectured them on ‘affordability’.

The lavish meals, ordered to be enjoyed by Johnson and his now-wife Carrie Symonds, were reportedly dropped off at Number 10 every Tuesday with a bouquet of flowers, after being prepared by Johnson’s personal Daylesford chef.

Eric Pickles

Former Tory Cabinet member Eric Pickles was mocked for his culinary hypocrisy after lecturing the public on their spending habits while splurging £76,000 a year on tea and biscuits.

In 2014, the Mirror revealed that Lord Pickles had “allowed the bill picked up by taxpayers to quadruple” thanks to his flagrant overspending on tea and biscuits, and many were disgusted at the eye-watering spend.

The Labour party welcomed the biscuit blunder as an opportunity to slam Tory spending, with the then-Shadow Communities Secretary Hilary Benn commenting: Eric Pickles lectures councils about cutting down on ­hospitality, but his department’s food and biscuits bill has soared. It’s about time he practised what he preaches.”

David Miliband

Despite being a healthier choice that biscuits, former Foreign Secretary David Miliband was taunted over an image of himself arriving at a 2008 Labour conference with a banana in hand.

Many people took the opportunity to mock the image of a chirpy Miliband wearing a suit, holding a banana rather strangely, on the way to the Manchester conference. But none more so than the Conservative party, who took the fruity photo as ample material for their own party conference.

Later that same year, bananas were handed out to delegates at a Conservative party conference in Birmingham, adorned with stickers showing Miliband’s face.

An accompanying sign advertising the snacks was put up at the event, plastered with an image of Miliband holding a banana and a speech bubble captioned ‘bananas!’ on the front.

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