The poor old Conservative Party, currently holding their annual conference in Manchester, don’t seem to be able to get much right recently.
Roundly rejected at last year’s election, plummeting in the polls, subject to near-endles leadership speculation, and outflanked on the left by the Liberal Democrats and on the right by Reform, now we’ve learnt that they can’t spell the name of their own country, despite their frequent attempts to accuse the Labour government of a lack of patriotism for Britain, or “Britian” as the Conservative Party’s conference merchandise would have us believe.
Yes, party officials have been handing out chocolate bars at the conference, emblazoned with the quote “When Labour negotiates, Britian loses” – a quote attributed to current party leader Kemi Badenoch.
The quote has been repeatedly used by the Tory leader in response to Labour negotiations, including the deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, as well as in response to trade deals negotiated with the US, India and the European Union, but LBC journalist Natasha Clark was among the first to spot the error:
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Regular visitors to the party conference have already noted a muted tone at this year’s conference, which is said to be much quieter than previous events, with many corporate visitors staying away and sparse attendance for less well-known members of the current shadow cabinet – many stalls at Manchester Central have been reported as unoccupied this year on both social and mainstream media, with party branding take the place of what would once have been a healthy source of income.
The blooper comes on the back of a new poll conducted by YouGov for Sky News, which found that half of all Conservative members think Ms Badenoch should not lead the party into the next election.
The poll of 652 Conservative members, taken between 26 September and 2 October, found 46 per cent think the current leader should stay in place when the country next goes to the polls, while 50 per cent say she should not.
Meanwhile, a seat-by-seat YouGov poll published earlier this month suggested the Tories would face electoral annihilation if a poll were held today, being left with just 45 MPs – putting them behind Reform UK, Labour and the Liberal Democrats, who the poll put at 78 MPs.
Conference organisers have reportedly blamed the mistake on a “printing error” and have since removed the chocolate from goodie bags, which also contained pictures of Rachel Reeves’s “fake CV” and a mock copy of Reform UK’s manifesto.
Responding to the spelling error, a pun-happy Labour source said: “Yet another Tory Flake. They can’t proofread five words on a bar of chocolate. “This conference really isn’t proving to be the Boost Kemi needs.”
To be fair to the beleagured Conservatives, other Twitter users were quick to, if not exactly defend them, at least point out they they’re no the only patriotic party that struggles with basic spelling when it comes to the country they claim to love:
Images: Natasha Clark/Twitter and Socialist Voice/Twitter
