Rishi Sunak was teased on social media today after he told This Morning he likes to order a breakfast wrap at McDonald’s.
Social media users quickly pointed out that the breakfast wraps were taken off the menu in March 2020 as part of the chain’s reduced Covid menu.
Then in January this year McDonald’s confirmed that the wrap would not be returning and they were “officially gone from the menu”.
Some poked fun at the former chancellor, while others said we should let him off considering how busy he would have been during the pandemic.
The Tory leadership hopeful told presenters Andi Peters and Rochelle Humes he liked to grab the meal with his eldest daughter.
Sunak made the comment when asked about a photograph he had recently shared on Instagram of himself paying at a McDonald’s self-service machine.
He posted the jokey photograph in an apparent reference to a gaffe in March when he was filmed struggling to use his bank card to buy petrol.
Asked what he had ordered in McDonald’s, Sunak said: “I was there at about I think gosh 7.45 in the morning or 7.30 so it was not a burger and nuggets.
“So I got breakfast. I get bacon roll with ketchup and the pancakes.
“If I’m with my daughters then we get the wrap. My eldest daughter…we get the wraps.
“If I’m with her they’re wrapped with a hashbrown and everything in it. That’s what we do.”
One Twitter user likened it to David Cameron’s “pasty at Leeds Station moment” when the former PM claimed he had enjoyed a Cornish pasty from the West Cornwall Pasty Company at Leeds Railway Station. It soon transpired the outlet had closed five years earlier.
Another added: “Another fascinating example of a politician trying to appear or act ‘normal’ when they are anything but.”
One man commented: “Seriously who briefs this guy? Also true is I am still in mourning for the breakfast wrap. It was the best!”
One Twitter user defended the MP for Richmond (Yorks) saying: “I get the need to unpick politician bullshit but this isn’t a great example.
“The lad has been rather busy since the start of Covid and probably hasn’t seen much of his family.
“We need to balance scrutiny with a bit more reasonableness towards public servants.”
It is one of a number of awkward moments for the former chancellor who was filmed in March struggling to use his bank card to buy petrol.
He had filled up a strangers’ car and then tried to pay for it in the shop by holding his card up to the barcode scanner.
It comes as Sunak tries to dispel criticism that he is too rich and too out of touch with the ordinary public.
Asked about the criticism, Sunak said: “I think in our country, we judge people by their character, by their actions, not by what’s in their bank account, and people can judge me by my record and my values.
“Furlough was the first time most people watching would have seen me, I popped up on this TV screen at that press conference.
“Everyone was like who on earth is this guy standing next to the prime minister and what on earth is he talking about - furlough?
“I was the same person then, wearing the same suit, that now I get criticism for. But those are my values - it’s to make sure that when times are difficult I act to help people who need help and do it in a way that’s effective. And that’s my record and that’s what I’ll do as PM.”
A member of Sunak’s team said he had the breakfast wrap with his girls when it was on the menu.