Kemi Badenoch said sandwiches are ‘what you have for breakfast’ but added that she sometimes has steak in remarks that made Good Morning Britain viewers ‘very cross’
Kemi Badenoch has declared that lunch is “for wimps” and sandwiches aren’t “real food”.
The Tory leader instead said she sometimes eats steak as she works, dismissing sandwiches as “what you have for breakfast”. Her light-hearted remarks sparked a backlash, with Good Morning Britain host Kate Garraway saying: “It’s made our viewers very cross”.
Describing her daily routine in an interview with The Spectator Ms Badenoch said: “What’s a lunch break? Lunch is for wimps. I have food brought in and I work and eat at the same time.”
She went on to say she is “not a sandwich person”, sometimes getting a steak. The Tory leader went on: “I don’t think sandwiches are a real food, it’s what you have for breakfast.”
She added that she “will not touch bread if it’s moist”. Discussing the remarks on the ITV morning show, former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng said: “I get where she’s coming on with sandwiches because, you know, those of us we have low carb diets and all of that sort of business, but it’s an individual choice.
“I don’t think that’s going to be a plank of the the next Tory manifesto.” He jokingly distanced himself from the controversial remark, saying: “I don’t think she’s expressing a party line or anything.”
Ms Garraway said viewers were up in arms about Ms Badenoch’s attack on sandwiches. She read responses from the public, saying: “Bill says most of us don’t get subsidised meals, they can’t spend an hour or more for lunch so eating sandwiches is handy on the hoof.”
The host went on to say that another viewer, named Debbie, said many are eating sandwiches because they don’t need power to cook them. Ms Garraway said: “In fact, lots of viewers have said that they’re deciding whether to have a cooked lunch or dinner or have a sandwich and put another load of washing on.”
Kemi Badenoch has said lunch breaks are “for wimps”.
The Conservative leader revealed she brings in food to the office and eats while getting on with her work because “there is no time”.
She used a line from Wall Street’s Gordon Gekko when explaining that she does not spend time away from her desk for a midday meal.
Gekko, played by Michael Douglas in the 1987 film set in the world of New York corporate finance, famously declared: “Lunch is for wimps.” He was also known for the quote: “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.”
Mrs Badenoch also declared that she did not believe that sandwiches were a “real food” and that she “would not touch bread if it’s moist”.
Her revelations come after she was criticised during the summer for not attending hustings to spend time with her family.
Criticism over children
Christopher Chope, a Tory MP, sparked controversy when he said she was “too preoccupied with her children” to be leader of the opposition.
Asked about her down time since becoming leader, Mrs Badenoch told The Spectator: “What’s decompressing, what’s that? What’s a lunch break? Lunch is for wimps.
“I have food brought in and I work and eat at the same time. There’s no time.”
The Conservative Party leader, who worked at The Spectator before leaving in 2016, also revealed some of her lunch preferences, expressing a distaste for sandwiches.
In her interview with the magazine’s new editor, Michael Gove, and Katy Balls, its political editor, she said: “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. I will not touch bread if it’s moist.”
