Tories latest social media strategy involves KFC

A photographer has claimed that the Conservative Party has stolen his image in a tweet jibe aimed at Jeremy Corbyn. Picture: Twitter - Credit: Twitter

The Conservative Party has shared a picture of Jeremy Corbyn dressed as a chicken on Twitter and copied in the fast food chain KFC.

KFC make use of a photograph of Jacob Rees-Mogg as part of many memes about the politician. Photograph: Twitter. – Credit: Archant

The official Twitter account for the Tories said: “Hey @KFC_UKI, we’ve found an even bigger chicken than you.”

The jibe comes after the prime minister branded the Labour leader a “gigantic chlorinated chicken” in the House of Commons this week, in a dig at his decision to block a general election.

Tweeting in response to the post, shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said the Tories are “distracting from their chaotic leadership and lack of mandate with bad policies and even worse jokes”.

Former Conservative Alistair Burt, who had the whip removed this week for defying the government over plans to block a no-deal Brexit, also shared the post, tweeting: “Please stop this stuff. We are better than this.”

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Conservative Party chairman James Cleverly encouraged the advert, tweeting: “Thinking about what to have for lunch.

“Large bucket of boneless (certainly spineless) JFC (Jeremy’s Frightened & Chicken) perhaps.”

Former chairwoman of the party Baroness Sayeeda Warsi described Cleverly’s sharing of the image as “silly playground behaviour”.

“We are in the middle of a national crisis and this is our response,” she tweeted. “How can grown men reduce themselves to this level of silliness. What has become of this great Party of ours.”

Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said the Tories are “distracting from their chaotic leadership and lack of mandate with bad policies and even worse jokes”.

“The problems facing this country are serious and a competent government would be acting not distracting,” the Labour MP added.

Some also thought the party had misunderstood how KFC works by claiming “we’ve found an even bigger chicken than you”.

“They think KFC is a chicken,” tweeted @Zafarcakes.

The company responded to the Twitter account, simply saying: “This is KFC not LBC don’t @ me.”

It follows the news that Boris Johnson’s new spin doctor used to dress up as a chicken to chase prime ministers for a living, when he worked as a reporter at the Mirror.