Rishi Sunak uses a hammer during a visit to Leeds
Rishi Sunak has been mocked for appearing to struggle with a hammer, but there is a perfectly innocent explanation.
A video of the prime minister using a hammer sideways to help knock a piece of jewellery together has gone viral on social media with critics asking whether the PM knows how to use such a tool.
Mr Sunak visited the Sunny Bank Mills complex in Farsley, West Yorkshire, on Thursday (November 23), where he took up a hammer to fashion some metal at the Emma White jewellery studio.
X users rushed to judgement, with former senior Tory MP Nadine Dorries mocking the prime minister, asking if he were the first PM to have seen a hammer before.
The former Culture Secretary wrote on the platform: "Nooooo way!! What is he doing? Is this the first PM ever who has never seen a hammer, or paid for petrol, or filled up his own car?"
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Rishi Sunak reacts as he's instructed to turn the hammer on its side (Image: ITV)
What really happened...
A fellow X user, tweeting from an account named Colin the Dachshund, mocked: "Tell me you've never seen a hammer before without telling me you've never seen a hammer before."
X user christhebarker, in a reference to a pre-election stunt by Argentine president-elect Javier Milei, quipped: "Quick! Someone give him a chainsaw!"
Labour sought to exploit the clip too, sharing the video with the comment: "Rishi Sunak: not the son of a toolmaker."
But Ione Wells, political correspondent at BBC News, cleared up the confusion.
She tweeted: "This clip is going viral - but in the full unedited rushes of the clip the woman with him actually says beforehand 'use this bit' to which he replies 'sideways?' and she says 'yes.'"
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Here: pic.twitter.com/kjuKkUMmju
— Ione Wells (@ionewells) November 24, 2023
Trending
X users showed their appreciation after Wells explained what really happened, though one or two were disappointed by it.
Kyiv-based filmmaker Oz Katerji replied to Wells's tweet: "Ruining all the fun with accuracy and responsible reporting!"
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Others drew a parallel between the PM's tool handling skills and former Labour leader Ed Miliband's infamous bacon sandwich eating incident.
X user Ciaran Murtagh commented: "In a country where a picture of a man eating a sandwich 'badly' was enough to scupper his chances of being PM, I don't think the truth is going to matter..."
But Winchester and Chandler's Ford MP Steve Brine dismissed the whole episode, tweeting: "Have you literally got nothing better to do on a busy news day?"
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