Ed Miliband was quick to defend Sir Keir Starmer over his HGV driving disaster by comparing it to one of his one embarrassing moments as Labour leader.
Miliband, now shadow business secretary, spoke to Sky’s Kay Burley about the Labour leader’s PR slip-up from Tuesday where he tried (and failed) to drive a lorry.
Burley said: “Certainly don’t want your leader to be an HGV driver – did you see what he did yesterday?”
Miliband replied: “Come on – it’s hardly the bacon sandwich is it, Kay?”
They laughed, but Burley pointed out that Starmer still failed his mock HGV driving test.
The shadow cabinet minister replied: “He was drawing attention to the fact that we need trained HGV drivers, it was all part of the plan.”
Burley has not been the only person to find Starmer’s driving attempts rather excruciating – especially when the driving instructor told him to “move to the left”, something Labour’s left-wing faction have long been trying to do with the party’s leader.
Journalist David Jack tweeted: “Who in Keir Starmer’s office thought that this was a good idea?”
However, Miliband’s own PR efforts as Labour leader were arguably more entertaining.
A photograph of him eating a bacon sandwich with an unusual expression on his face became an infamous internet meme in 2014 when he was campaigning for local elections.
It soon played a key part in the criticism towards Miliband, as his opponents said it captured his awkwardness and inability to do ordinary tasks.
It was used on the front page of The Sun newspaper the day before the 2015 general election, which saw Labour lose 26 seats in Parliament.