‘This food is not for burning!’: Strangest items for sale at Conservative Party Conference revealed from Theresa May Toby jug to Keir Starmer flip flops
- Margaret Thatcher apron with ‘this food is not for burning’ on sale for £19.95
Tories really want to put their foot into Sir Keir Starmer if their party conference gift shop is anything to go by.
Flip-flops bearing the Labour Party leader’s face are just one of the bizarre items of merchandise Conservatives can get their hands on this week in Manchester.
Even Greg Hands couldn’t help himself from having a jab at Sir Keir during his opening speech as he paraded a pair of the £16.99 red flip-flops to conference-goers.
The party chairman did not hold back as he dished out a tongue-lashing. Questioning who is the real Sir Keir, he said: ‘The friend and supporter of Jeremy Corbyn? The puppet of Tony Blair? Or the mouthpiece of Just Stop Oil?
‘All we do know is that he has broken every single leadership pledge and flip-flopped almost 60 times in just three years.
Tory party chairman Greg Hands showcased the new Sir Keir Starmer flip-flops during the opening speech of the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester
Sir Keir Starmer flip-flops (left) is a thinly veiled barb at the Labour leader ‘flip-flopping almost 60 times in three years’, while the Tories also detail Labour’s manifesto in a notebook of 200 blank pages (right)
‘This is a man who will literally say anything that suits him at that time.’
READ MORE: Rishi v the rebels: Sunak braces for storm at Tory conference as Liz Truss and Priti Patel join tax cuts clamour and leadership rivals jostle for position
There was an eruption of applause as Mr Hands then produced a pair of Sir Keir flip-flops from behind the lectern and urged people to grab them from the party shop outside.
Other items on sale include ‘Top Trumped by the Unions’ playing cards for £11.98 in a jibe at Labour being ‘bankrolled by the trade unions’.
The cards detail how much in donations Labour MPs have received. They are each given a ‘red rating’ with Sir Keir’s reading ‘depends who’s asking’ and for Jeremy Corbyn an infinity symbol is displayed.
Labour’s manifesto is also available to buy for £13.99 in the form of a notebook which has 200 blank pages.
People can also recreate a recipe created by a current or former Tory MP in the Corridors of Flour cookbook on sale at £10.95.
Boris Johnson’s cheese on toast offering suggests ‘a large amount of cheese’ and to ‘keep grilling until the edges of the cheese… are faintly scabby in appearance and texture’.
In a nod to Margaret Thatcher’s famous ‘this lady’s not for turning’ speech, fans can get their hands on an apron with a caricature of the Iron Lady with the slogan ‘this food is not for burning’ for £19.95
‘No, no. no. no. ho. ho. ho’: No Christmas tree is complete with a Thatcher bauble. A set of two will set you back £18.99
Current and former Tory MPs have revealed some of their favourite recipes in the Corridors of Flour cookbook
Some former Tory leaders have been celebrated in Toby jug form. The above Theresa May version is available for £28.95
The hand-made ceramic jugs were painted in Stoke-on-Trent. John Major was leader and prime minister from 1990 to 1997
Bizarrely you can even pick up a Conservative high-vis (£14.99) to show your support for the party. The product description says it is to be used for events. delivering and other campaigning duties
Boris Johnson donning his ‘Get Brexit Done’ boxing gloves has been turned into a jigsaw puzzle which can be bought for £18
Top Trumped by the Unions (£11.98) takes a swipe at Labour for being ‘bankrolled by the trade unions trying to grind our country to a halt’
There is a section dedicated to leaders, most notably Margaret Thatcher. In a nod to Thatcher’s famous ‘this lady’s not for turning’ speech, fans can buy an apron for £19.95 with a caricature of the Iron Lady with the slogan ‘this food is not for burning’.
READ MORE: Jeremy Hunt vows to slash ‘the blob’ by 66,000 and freeze Whitehall expansion as Chancellor uses Tory conference speech to pledge to toughen benefit rules
Although you can pick up a Theresa May Toby jug, Rishi Sunak fans will be left disappointed with merchandise of the current PM in scant supply.
In fact, his face only appears on a pop art coaster set of four prime ministers, alongside Winston Churchill, Thatcher, and Benjamin Disraeli.
Meanwhile, Jeremy Hunt today announced a freeze on Whitehall expansion as he set out plans to cut 66,000 civil servant jobs.
In his address to the Tory conference in Manchester, the Chancellor pledged to save taxpayers £1billion next year by halting the growth of the civil service.
Mr Hunt pledged to cap the Whitehall headcount at its current level of around 490,000 and set out an ambition to reduce this number to pre-Covid levels.
The Chancellor also used his conference speech to pledge to toughen benefit rules, confirm plans to increase the National Living Wage to at least £11 an hour, and vow to tighten banking rules in the wake of the ‘debanking’ scandal.
Jeremy Hunt announced a freeze on Whitehall expansion as he set out plans to cut 66,000 civil servant jobs
Mr Hunt also used his Tory conference speech today to confirm plans to increase the National Living Wage for over-23s to at least £11 an hour and impose tougher conditions on benefits
But today saw Mr Hunt come under fresh pressure to slash taxes, as former PM Liz Truss led a string of ex-Cabinet ministers in demanding a cut to levies at a rally of Tory activists.
Announcing his plans to halt Whitehall expansion, the Chancellor said in his speech: ‘We have the best civil servants in the world and they saved many lives in the pandemic by working night and day.
‘But even after that pandemic is over, we still have 66,000 more civil servants than before. New policies should not always mean new people.
‘So, today I’m freezing the expansion of the civil service and putting in place a plan to reduce its numbers to pre-pandemic levels. This will save £1billion next year.’
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