Sending the right message is important in politics, but an irritated aide to Boris Johnson may have taken it too far by snatching a coffee out of his hand in front of television cameras.
ADVERTISEMENTSending the right message is important in politics, but an irritated aide to Boris Johnson may have taken it too far by snatching a coffee out of his hand in front of television cameras.
The British Prime Minister was walking through his party conference in Manchester when press secretary Robert Oxley handed him the hot drink.
But another aide, named in British reports as 10 Downing Street operations director Shelley Williams-Walker, snatched the non-recyclable cup out of Johnson’s hand.
"Oh, oh!” said the Prime Minister said, looking awkward.
"No. Disposable. Cups,” Williams-Walker seethed at Oxley, who muttered “sorry” under his breath.
It echoes a similar ban on champagne at the annual Conservative conference instigated after the global banking collapse in 2008.
A television series by Sir David Attenborough highlighting the impact of plastics on the environment is credited with encouraging Britons to recycle more and waste less. That includes moving away from using items such as disposable coffee cups.
The Prime Minister tweeted that he got his coffee eventually.