Political storm in an egg hunt

May and Corbyn unite to condemn Cadbury’s and National Trust

A debate over a National Trust and Cadbury Easter egg hunt has prompted ridicule from commentators.

Both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn were critical of a decision to drop the word “Easter” from the annual egg event, while Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said the pair had “got egg on their faces” after criticising Cadbury and the National Trust “for something they haven’t actually done”.

The National Trust described claims it had downplayed the significance of the festival as “nonsense”, while the chocolate giant said it was “simply not true” to claim Easter did not feature in its marketing.

The row unfolded after the Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu spoke out about the decision to name the event “Cadbury’s Great British Egg Hunt”.

Speaking from Jordan on her Middle Eastern tour, Mrs May told ITV News: “Easter’s very important. It’s important to me. It’s a very important festival for the Christian faith for millions across the world.

“So I think what the National Trust is doing is frankly just ridiculous.”

Labour leader Mr Corbyn said the issue reflected “commercialisation gone a bit too far”.

He added: “It upsets me because I don’t think Cadbury’s should take over the name.”

A spokeswoman for Cadbury said: “It is clear to see that within our communications we visibly state the word Easter.

“It is included a number of times across promotional materials, including our website and even embossed on many of the eggs themselves.

“Our Easter Egg packaging also carries the word Easter and these products are only available at this special time of the year.

“Our Easter partnership with the National Trust is also synonymous with Easter and we make it clear throughout materials that it is an egg hunt, for families, at Easter.”

The National Trust, which has been running the annual egg hunt with Cadbury for 10 years, declined to address the Prime Minister’s claims directly, but a spokesman said of the claims: “Nothing could be further from the truth.

“We host a huge programme of events, activities and walks to bring families together to celebrate this very special time of year.”

A Church of England spokesman accused the National Trust of “updating” the page overnight and “seemingly adding” a few references to Easter.

Cadbury’s has denied it has renamed the event to remove reference to Easter after both the Prime Minister Theresa May and the leader of the opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, attacked the company and its partner, the National Trust.