Rishi Sunak’s solemn social media post about taking on crime has been ripped apart.
Days after the prime minister triggered outrage by leaving the 80th anniversary commemorations for D-Day early, and was then widely accused of avoiding the media, he has come under attack once again for not quite reading the room.
On Monday, he posted on X (formerly Twitter): “If you’re a criminal, the law should show you no mercy.”
It was most likely an attempt to promote the Conservatives’ plan to recruit 8,000 more officers over the next three years if they get back into Downing Street.
But Sunak had still not followed this post up with another message about his party’s strategy within two hours – leaving him wide open to all of X’s criticism.
For instance, he was quickly reminded that he was fined £50 when police concluded he (along with then PM Boris Johnson) broke lockdown rules on social distancing.
Others remembered how Sunak was also fined for not wearing a seatbelt in a moving vehicle while he was filming a video for social media.
Some X users recalled how the prison system has changed under Sunak, as he oversaw a scheme to release “low-level offenders” in England and Wales up to 70 days early.
They also blamed him for declining numbers of police officers, and major delays for victims waiting for trial.
The government also famously admitted that the UK’s Brexit deal with the EU would “break international law” in a “specific and limited way” back in 2020 – when Sunak was chancellor.
Some posts joked that this was a reference to the wave of stories related to Tory sleaze in the last few years.
Others remembered how Sunak was accused of allowing “fraudsters” to exploit “weakness” in the Covid loans scheme in 2022, too.
A spending tracker from the Best for Britain also found the Tories have squandered £130billion of taxpayer money since the last general election.
And, of course, there were just the general jibes at the PM too.