Food and Drink

Tories’ favourite takeaways revealed in election spending report

The Conservative Party’s favourite takeaway spots have been revealed in the Electoral Commission spending report – and it says a lot about the people currently running the country.

Orders from UberEats topped the list, accounting for an eye-watering £22,735.14-worth of food orders during the election campaign.

Pizza was also prominent, with Pizza Hut (£1,971.98), Pizza Express (£610.82), Papa Johns (£299.70) and Dominos (£279.42) making up the top five respectively.

Two expense claims for a solitary McDonald’s at £9.27 and a KFC at £5.89 were also put through to much bemusement on social media.

£16 million campaign

Elsewhere it was revealed the Conservative Party spent an eye-watering £16,486,871 on their landslide election win in December last year.

Figures published by the Electoral Commission today show they spent more than £200,000 for each of the party’s 80-seat majority won.

Most of the party’s budget – almost £6 million – was spent on “unsolicited material to electors”, the commission said

The second biggest spend was marketing and canvassing, which came at a cost of £4,471,937.

Fake Twitter account

More than £1.4 million was spent on Facebook through media and advertising. Just over £1,000 was spent on Twitter advertising, but almost £500,000 was spent working with digital advertising agency Topham Guerin.

The company, founded in 2016 by two New Zealanders, produces images and videos for social media and was behind two controversial stunts: renaming the official Conservative party Twitter account “factcheckUK” during the televised debate, and setting up a website made to look like Labour’s manifesto.

The Government has since signed contracts with the company, hiring the PR team to work with it during the coronavirus crisis.

Related: PMQs – Johnson fails to Excel due to ‘intergalactic incompetence’ as wind fan plan spreads sheet

Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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