Next Thursday is election day in the Batley and Spen by-election and with polls showing a six point Tory lead, it’s no surprise CCHQ has been stepping up its ground game there. Boris Johnson was deployed on Friday to visit the constituency, taking in Batley’s largest employer, Fox’s biscuit factory, the home of kids’ favourite party rings. Asked for his favourite biscuit, a suitably on message PM told local hacks: ‘My favourite biscuit I had today was a Fox’s jam and cream I think it’s called. It was terrific’
Unfortunately for Fox’s the Prime Minister’s visit has gone down less favourably on social media, with some of the most notorious Remainiac accounts using it as a chance to dunk on the popular biscuit manufacturer. An innocuous post declaring the company was ‘proud’ to have hosted Johnson was seized upon as evidence of the crunch cream makers’ Brexit bias, with scores of FBPE accounts declaring they would boycott sports biscuits et al in protest.
Whipped up by the ‘Churchill Project’ – a humourless transatlantic import that would surely fall foul of the Trade Descriptions Act – the confectionery police descended on the hapless factory’s social media pages to berate the biscuit-eers, demand a retraction and question whether it was a Tory donor.
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