The outgoing Prime
Minister’s ceramic collectable Toby Jug has outsold those of Margaret Thatcher
and Winston Churchill since he entered No 10 in 2019.
Sales figures provided by
the House of Commons show 225 Toby Jugs of Mr Johnson have been sold since 2019
compared to 157 for two designs of Mrs Thatcher and 154 for Mr Churchill.
Mr Johnson is in his final
weeks as Prime Minister after a series of scandals resulted in dozens of
resignations from ministers and unpaid aides, capping a tumultuous period in
modern British politics.
His jug, priced at £32 and
measuring 11 centimetres high, is listed as out of stock on the Parliament
website.
They are made in
Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, and a total of 1,500 have been made for each
prime minister included in the series.
Shoppers bought 64 Mr
Johnsons in 2019/20, 69 in 2020/21, 77 in 2021/22 and 15 so far in the current
financial year.
By contrast, 77 Theresa May
Toby Jugs were sold during her three years in power between 2016 and 2019.
The Conservative former
prime minister was fourth on the latest list with 65 sales since 2019/20
followed by Labour’s Tony Blair on 64.
Conservative MP Michael
Fabricant, a Johnson loyalist, told the PA news agency: “I am glad to hear he’s
not just popular amongst Conservative Party members who wanted him to stay,
he’s popular with the general public too.
“And I hear his sales
exceeded Gordon Brown’s – but that’s nothing much to be proud of, I guess.”
On why Mr Johnson topped
the sales chart, Mr Fabricant said: “Boris is popular because he has a real
personality unlike so many boring politicians, and, like me, he has gorgeous
blond hair.”
Labour post-war prime
minister Clement Atlee sold 58 followed by Harold Wilson on 46 and Sir John
Major on 40 – with David Cameron only managing 39 sales and Gordon Brown 34.
Neville Chamberlain was
among the least popular prime ministerial Toby Jugs over the same period, with
20 sold.
Andrew Bonar Law, Ramsay
MacDonald and Stanley Baldwin sold 10 apiece although the figures only relate
to 2021/22 and this year.
And not a word (or jug) about Thatcher?
By Scarlett Verkuijlen from Algarve on 07 Aug 2022, 15:25