The prime minister was handed a P45 — the British government tax form that comes with unemployment — during her keynote speech at the Conservative party conference in Manchester Wednesday.
The key speech, intended to shore up the prime minister’s position with her MPs and key supporters amongst swirling rumours of a leadership challenge was repeatedly interrupted — not just by a man climbing up to the stage to hand her the paper as a protest — but by Theresa May almost totally losing her voice.
Clearly struggling to speak and coughing between words, the prime minister’s difficulty prompted Chancellor Philip Hammond to reach up to the stage and pass her a cough sweet. Referring to the lozenge before she put it in her mouth, Prime Minister May attempted to make light of the unusual situation by quipping in receiving the sweet it was a rare example of “the chancellor giving something away for free”.
At points, it was not at all clear if the prime minister would be able to continue her speech at all and prolonged standing applause from the floor appeared to give her crucial minutes to drink water, regain composure, and continue.
The Prime Minister is handed a P45 unemployment form. The paper was signed ‘Boris Johnson’ / Getty Images
British newspaper The Sun identified the man who passed the fake unemployment form to the prime minister as prankster Lee Nelson, saying as he did so that “Boris asked me to give this to you”.
After taking the paper from the man and briefly holding it up for the assembled delegates and journalists to see, the prime minister attempted to deflect the joke by remarking: “I’d like to talk about someone I’d like to give a P45 to – and that’s Jeremy Corbyn.”
The Manchester Evening News has called the stunt in a city which just months ago witnessed a major terror attack an “extraordinary breach of security”.
In a further unexpected event, one of the letters spelling out the prime minister’s slogan on the backdrop behind her fell off during the speech, leaving it stating “Building a Country That Works or Everyone” instead.
Theresa May is handed a cough sweet during her keynote speech / Getty Images
In addition to these unexpected embarrassments, the prime minister also had the pre-planned contrition of having to apologise for her poor performance in the recent general election. She said of her poor performance that the election had been “too scripted, too presidential… I hold my hands up for that. I take responsibility. I led the campaign and I am sorry.”
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