Winging it: Conservatives criticised over meme depicting Jeremy Corbyn as a chicken
The Conservative Party has published a meme depicting Jeremy Corbyn in a chicken costume and delivered chicken to journalists offices in an escalation in its campaign to brand the Labour leader a “chicken” for refusing to back the government’s calls for an early election.
The chicken, which was hand delivered to various newspapers’ Parliamentary offices this afternoon, was in packaging mimicking fried chicken outlet KFC’s branding, with a logo that read “JFC” and the tagline “totally spineless chicken”.
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A letter accompanying the delivery was headed “Fowl play”, and read: “Move over Colonel. Jeremy Corbyn’s the new biggest chicken in town.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson called Jeremy Corbyn a “chlorinated chicken” during Prime Minister’s questions on Wednesday for refusing to back his vote to hold an early election.
The meme depicting Corbyn in a chicken costume was posted on the Conservative Party’s Twitter account earlier today. Tagging KFC’s UK Twitter account, the party tweeted: “Hey @KFC_UKI, we’ve found an even bigger chicken than you.”
It attracted criticism from Tory grandees including Baroness Warsi, who criticised party co-chair James Cleverly for sharing the post, accusing him of “silly playground behaviour”.
“How can grown men reduce themselves to this level of silliness. What has become of this great Party of ours,” she tweeted.
Former Tory MP Alistair Burt, who lost the whip on Tuesday after rebelling against the government to vote in favour of blocking a no-deal Brexit, also criticised the post.
“Please stop this stuff, we are better that this,” Burt tweeted.
“The Tories are distracting from their chaotic leadership and lack of mandate with bad policies and even worse jokes,” tweeted shadow home secretary Diane Abbott.
“The problems facing this country are serious and a competent government would be acting not distracting,” she added.
Some Twitter users have also pointed out that the Tory Party’s tweet appears to suggest that KFC is itself a chicken.
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“They think KFC is a chicken,” tweeted @Zafarcakes.
KFC appeared to distance itself from the argument, tweeting: “This is KFC not LBC don’t @ me.”