Tory London mayor candidate Shaun Bailey mocked for Great British Bake Off campaign video: ‘You can really taste the reduction in crime’

‘Great London Bake Off’ clip derided by opponents as ‘embarrassing’

The Conservative candidate in the London mayoral election has been mocked for an “embarrassing” campaign video which mimics the Great British Bake Off to claim he will be tough on crime if he won.

In the “Great London Bake Off” video,  Shaun Bailey and his Labour rival Sadiq Khan, who is superimposed onto the footage, each present a cake depicting their vision for the capital.

While the Tory canidate’s cake is shown to be structurally intact and complete with edible buildings and police officers, the incumbent London mayor’s creation is shown to be a mess.

Two actors playing the Bake Off judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith also appear in the campaign video, which is narrated by Tory politician Esther McVey, to offer their comments before declaring Mr Bailey the winner.

Sampling the Tory candidate’s cake, the Prue Leith character comments: “Yup, you can really taste the reduction in crime.”  

The judges add that the design of the cake showcases the Tory pledge to commit 8,000 extra police, to clean up the city’s air and to build new housing.

Commentators were quick to ridicule Mr Bailey, who posted the video on Twitter on Tuesday evening, describing it as a “showstopper”.

Femi Oluwole, a prominent anti-Brexit activist, tweeted the video only served to highlight how the Tories had cut more than 20,000 police since they came to power.  

“I can't imagine how embarrassing it must be to put all this effort into a video like this, and all it does is remind people that you represent the party that cut 21,000 police from UK streets,” he wrote.

Rosena Allin-Khan, the shadow mental health minister, also criticised the clip, calling it a “farce” that had failed to take off.

Mr Bailey and Mr Khan will face each other the mayoral elections on 6 May next year. The vote was supposed to take place in May this year, before it was delayed because of coronavirus.