A Sandwich Short of a Picnic

The absurd row over Kemi Badenoch's lunch reveals why the Conservative party's electoral chances will only diminish as long as she remains leader

There are lots of things worth criticising Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch for.

The bullying allegations. The attacks on civil servants, mothers, autistic children and trans people. The support for far-right tech barons and commentators. The hacking.

Yet the one thing she received more criticism for than anything else this week was her dislike of what Keir Starmer’s spokesman cringingly described as the “Great British institution” of the sandwich.

Incredibly, her comments, in which she also described lunch as being “for wimps”, was treated in Westminster as the biggest political story of the week, leading to this absolutely genuine BBC headline yesterday.

Unlike all of the other things she has said since becoming leader, the criticism of her dislike of sandwiches seems somewhat unfair.

Although loved in Britain, the sandwich is not a particularly popular dish in large parts of the world, which is why lots of Brits from immigrant backgrounds choose to avoid it.

Even for those of us who do like them, it can be surprisingly difficult to find a decent one. The vast majority of packaged sandwiches on sale in the UK are, as she suggested, pretty soggy and unpalatable.

Yet the row, and how she has handled it, does help to explain why Badenoch has had such a dire start to her leadership, and why the Conservative party will remain one sandwich short of a picnic as long as she remains in charge.