Michael Gove has tried to compare a delay to Brexit with getting a new kitchen and having to wait a few extra days for the hob to be delivered, but he failed miserably to win over the Brexiteer he was speaking to.
The Tory leadership contender and environment secretary had hoped he would win over the LBC Radio caller with his analogy for explaining why Brexit should be delayed beyond October 31st, but the caller was less than convinced.
Elizabeth from Clacton, who was speaking to Iain Dale on his radio programme, was arguing the case that the UK must leave the EU by 31st October without an delays.
She was very insistent with her point, but Gove thought he had a way to win her around.
“Let’s imagine that you were having a new kitchen fitted. The people said you were going to have it all in by the 31st.
“Let’s imagine on October 31st, you had a wonderful new fridge, a great dishwasher and a cooker, but the hob hadn’t arrived for the cooker.
“Would you say at that time, ‘rip out my kitchen, it has not all been delivered on October 31st’. Or would you wait a day or two for the hob to come in order to make sure that your perfect new kitchen was there?”
As he sat back in his seat, satisified with his explanation, caller Elizabeth startled the MP by concluding: “I would rip it out, we’ve been ripped out enough.”
Gove clarified his point again, hoping she would see sense and change her mind.
“So if your kitchen was 98% installed, all you needed was the hob and it would take one extra day, you would say it doesn’t matter how much time and money has been spent on it, rip it out, I’d go back to the manky old kitchen I had before?”
But the Brexiteer was adamant with her answer. “Yes, I’d want my money back.”
Remainers joined in on the kitchen analogy on social media.
Matt Brumpton said: “The analogy is great – if she decided to rip it out she would have no kitchen not the old kitchen – if she decided to live with it she would have a reduced kitchen – this is Brexit – a one way ticket no return and at best starting with a lesser deal.”
Uggfeet tweeted: “Or maybe come to the conclusion beforehand that the old kitchen really wasn’t ‘manky’ despite you trying to convince me it was and that the new one was actually inferior, would leave me much poorer, in order to line the pockets of those selling it to me.”
Chris Howell wrote: “Gove sounds like a kitchen fitter that promised a beautiful new kitchen in 6 weeks, and 2 months later he’s partially installed a new kitchen made up of the left over bits from other jobs, and is now pleading for one more week to make everything better.”