Kemi Badenoch has hit out at the idea of sandwiches, saying she doesn’t consider them to be a real food as she declared lunchtime is ‘for wimps’.
In an interview with The Spectator to mark her first month as leader of the opposition, the combative MP also took aim at people who celebrate Christmas too early, joking they should be fined.
But she saved her real ire for the meal deal favourite, with the controversial suggestion that they should only be eaten for breakfast.
Badenoch said: ‘Lunch is for wimps. I have food brought in and I work and eat at the same time. There’s no time… sometimes I will get a steak.
‘I’m not a sandwich person, I don’t think sandwiches are a real food, it’s what you have for breakfast.
‘Soggy bread is a no-no: I will not touch bread if it’s moist.’
The new Conservative leader is settling into her new role after defeating ex-immigration minister Robert Jenrick at the beginning of November.
She has since picked Jenrick to serve as her shadow justice secretary, while fellow former rivals Dame Priti Patel and Mel Stride were given prominent roles as shadow foreign secretary and shadow chancellor respectively.
In her Spectator interview, Badenoch said she wanted to use her time as Tory leader to explore ‘how radical you can be on the right’ and cited the unconventional Argentinian leader Javier Milei as an inspiration.
When asked how she might pitch her party’s manifesto for the next election, she said: ‘There’ll be lots of red meat. This will be a Conservative restaurant.’
Meanwhile, she revealed she does not put up any Christmas decorations in her house until Christmas Day itself – but makes it ‘look like Santa’s grotto, nothing is too cheesy’.
Badenoch added: ‘It’s fine if you want to start early, like on December 1, but before that people should be fined for putting up decorations.’
Continuing the festive theme, she named Gremlins, Scrooged and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past as her favourite seasonal movies while describing Die Hard as a ‘good Christmas-adjacent movie’.
Asked the same question on ITV’s This Morning last month, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer struggled to answer before admitting Love Actually would be an interesting watch for him this year since moving into Downing Street.
Badenoch criticised his choice, arguing the movie has ‘quite a lot of dark undertones’.
She said: ‘There is a British prime minister who’s messing around and is not doing the foreign policy properly, people are cheating and there is a lot going on there if you move away from the smiley, happy, cheesy stuff.’
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