Brexit Party Leader Nigel Farage Likens Boris Johnson’s Brexit Deal to Mouldy Cheese

Welcome to a new daily blog about Britain’s next General Election, in which Eater London will find even the most tangential means of writing about the intersection of politics and food.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson last week elected to misappropriate the lexicon of domestic appliances in an attempt to articulate that, under him, Brexit was nearly “done”: “Oven-ready,” he claimed was the current status of his Brexit deal; “slam it in the microwave,” the instruction for an electorate he supposes is hungry for closure.

Well, this weekend, it was the turn of a politician to Johnson’s right: Mr Brexit himself, milkshake-magnet and Friend of Trump, Nigel Farage. Speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Marr yesterday morning, Farage was variously discussing how he wouldn’t stand to be a Member of Parliament (having failed seven times before), how he would field in the region of 600 candidates across the country, if Johnson doesn’t drop his Brexit deal, and, yes, likening that deal to a piece of mouldy cheese.

“When you get it out of the fridge it’s really appetising and delicious for a few days,” he said, suggesting that the bounce Johnson received having agreed a deal with the European Union was considered a triumph mainly because of its improbability, “but after couple of weeks it stinks and is inedible.”

Farage, who had compared the deal to cheese before, suggested that as time passes, and as more people become familiar with details of the terms of Britain’s exit in Johnson’s deal, “it starts to smell.”

Now there’s a temptation to believe that Farage, like Johnson with his chief of staff Dominic Cummings, bolstered by creative operatives, is seeking to harness SEO power in the run-up to a Christmas election. And although it might only be a small fraction of the electorate who would consider slamming a turkey in the microwave, there are of course “oven-ready” trimmings aplenty. Cheese, too, is a festive staple. [Insert Face With Monocle emoji]

It could also just be the verbosity of two middle-aged public school boys trained in the art of floral metaphor.

More soon from the campaign trail.