Chancellor John Healey keeps a bottle of HP Sauce in his briefcase and reportedly won't go out without it. His unusual habit is among several memorable food-related moments involving politicians, from Theresa May's awkward chip cone to George H.W. Bush's infamous dinner incident in Tokyo.
Healey's Loyalty to HP Sauce
The Labour Chancellor's fondness for the brown sauce extends to keeping a bottle on a coaster on his desk. During a Greggs stop in Scotland, he bought a sausage roll and pulled his trusty bottle from his briefcase. He previously said: "I suppose a politician's answer would be that I'm an MP so I carry HP sauce. But the hard truth of it is that I love HP sauce – and these days, you often get a brown-sauce substitute."
The bottle hasn't always made it through travels, as Healey admitted it had occasionally been confiscated at airport security due to liquid restrictions.
Awkward Eating Moments in the Spotlight
Theresa May made eating a cone of chips look demanding during a campaign visit to Cornwall in 2017. The then prime minister was pictured sheepishly picking out individual chips, looking less than comfortable in front of cameras.
Donald Trump, then a presidential candidate in 2016, shared a photograph of himself eating KFC on his private plane with a knife and fork poised over his fried chicken. David Cameron also opted for cutlery to tackle a hot dog at a family barbecue in Poole, Dorset, during the 2015 election campaign.
Questionable Food Choices
Rishi Sunak's McDonald's moment went wrong during the Tory leadership contest in August 2022. On ITV's This Morning, he said he ordered a bacon roll with ketchup and pancakes, and that he and his daughters chose the breakfast wrap when eating together. However, the wrap had been off the menu since March 2020. His campaign said he had barely seen his children since becoming Chancellor.
In 2015, Australia's then prime minister Tony Abbott bit into a raw onion as though it were an apple during a visit to Tasmania. He later defended the choice, saying: "The famous onion, it came out of the machine with all of the skin taken off it. This one has just got a little bit too much skin on it for me to munch." He added: "But I've got to say that without the skin, nicely cut up, it would be a beautiful addition to a salad, and we all love a good Aussie salad, including a bit of raw onion."
Historical Food Disasters
George H.W. Bush vomited into Japanese prime minister Kiichi Miyazawa's lap during a state dinner in Tokyo in January 1992 before fainting. Doctors attributed the episode to acute gastroenteritis. He recovered enough to leave under his own steam and reportedly joked about rolling under the table to sleep it off.
Ed Miliband's bacon sandwich moment came during a visit to London's New Covent Garden Market in May 2014. Photographs caught less-than-flattering expressions as he chewed, with some suggesting it cost him the 2015 general election. Miliband later dismissed that idea. His brother David faced his own awkward moment in 2008 when photographed grinning with a banana at Labour's conference in Manchester, leading the Conservatives to hand out bananas with stickers of his face at their conference.
