Mould-scraping May the jam buttie of Brexit jokes

As Brexit metaphors go, it’s up there.

British Prime Minister Theresa May reportedly said she scrapes the mould off jam, which was quickly dubbed a perfect metaphor to describe Britain’s European Union departure plans.

The British leader, who is a keen cook, reportedly told members in her top leadership team that instead of throwing out mouldy jam, she scoops off the mould and eats what is underneath. What is left is perfectly edible, she reportedly said. Her views came up in a discussion about food waste, according to the Daily Mail.

The comments sparked a heated debate between scrapers and binners. This is Britain, a place that cares deeply about its fruit preserves.

It also did not take long before comparisons were made to Brexit. The Daily Mirror dubbed it “Jamgate” and said it was the “perfect metaphor” to describe May’s attempt to “scrape clean a mouldy Brexit”.

“She’s still trying to scrape clean the ‘backstop’ from her 585-page Brexit deal, rather than, you know, giving up and getting a new one,” the paper said. “Unlike her jars of preserve, however, there are doubts about how easily she can dress up what’s left as tasty.”

May is, of course, in a jam as she struggles to get a Brexit deal through Parliament. Britain is set to leave the bloc in just 43 days, and if nothing changes, then Britain will exit the bloc without a deal, potentially leading to food shortages.

Jamgate is just one of a range of metaphors that have been employed for Brexit. There was the time in Berlin when May got stuck in a locked car door with German Chancellor Angela Merkel looking on. “I can’t get out!” was the caption on the front page of the

Sun the following day.

The Tory MP Tobias Ellwood alluded to delaying Brexit when he tweeted a picture of his son with a cake they baked for 30 minutes, longer than the instructions said. “It was a big decision — honouring the cookbook or take more time to get the right result,” he tweeted.

Boris Johnson, a leading figure in the Brexit campaign, once said, “Brexit means Brexit, and we are going to make a Titanic success of it.” Not only did this trigger much mocking, but it was also the inspiration for the video “Brexit: A Titanic Disaster.”

Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition Labour Party who famously makes his own jam, said he does not share May’s jam-scraping habits.

“Jeremy’s love of both making and consuming jam is well-known, and as such he personally never gets to the point of scraping or chucking mould,” his spokesman said.