Yorkshire Tea shocked by backlash to Rishi Sunak photo
Yorkshire Tea urged social media users to “be kind” after the company became embroiled in a row involving the Chancellor.
Last week Chancellor Rishi Sunak posted a picture of him making a huge round of tea for his staff. He was pictured holding a bumper pack of 1,040 tea bags.
The tweet led to a number of social media users calling for a boycott of Yorkshire Tea.
The tea brand said it had had a rough weekend responding to the fallout from Sunak’s picture. It also reminded users that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had posed with Yorkshire Tea in 2017.
Yorkshire Tea was quick to explain that it had nothing to do with the Chancellor’s tweet and had not been told in advance by Sunak’s team that he would associate himself with their brand.
On Monday the brand, which is owned by Taylors of Harrogate, said it had “spent the last three days answering furious accusations and boycott calls”.
A member of the brand’s social media team said it was “easier to be on the receiving end of this [criticism] as a brand than as an individual”, but urged people to remember “there’s a human on the other end of it”.
On Twitter Yorkshire Tea said to one user: “Sue, you’re shouting at tea.” which has prompted a Brixton-based designer to create a t-shirt with the phrase.
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