David Davis made centre of Brexit jokes following Vodafone rant

Davis’ comment comes a matter of hours after prime minister Boris Johnson faced technical difficulties during a coronavirus briefing on Monday night.

Johnson had been making an announcement on sweeping changes to England’s lockdown rules when audio from the live stream in his Downing Street apartment appeared to cut out.

The interruption saw Johnson, who is isolating after coming into contact with a colleague who tested positive for Covid-19, carry on speaking while no sound was playing.

The announcement was suspended three minutes later when it became apparent the issues would not be quickly resolved.

Unleashing a similar frustration with technology, Davis tweeted: “From the serious to the ridiculously trivial – over the past week I’ve wasted over six hours on the phone due to spectacularly incompetent customer support from @VodafoneUK.”

The Tory MP went on to say this resulted in his number having to change networks for the first time in 25 years.

This provoked a flurry of hilarious responses, connecting Davis with previous comments he made about Brexit negotiations.

Writer James Felton swooped in, writing: “If I was somebody who sold myself on my badass negotiation skills I probably wouldn’t admit it took me six hours to fail to negotiate a phone number transfer with Vodafone, to be honest.”

He continued: “Did you try telling them you were willing to walk away without a phone?”

Siobhan Benita, a former Liberal Democrat candidate for the Mayor of London election, tweeted: “Take back control David. Just tell them you want to leave but you insist on keeping all the benefits. It’ll work a treat.”

Kieran from Vodafone urged Davis to contact him for support, prompting one user to reply: “Hi Kieran. Please keep him hanging, after all no phone is better than a bad phone and he does hold all the cards.”

@SpillerOfTea quipped: “Did you want to retain all the benefits of phone ownership but with none of the responsibilities?”

Gary Frank asked: “When you say ‘wasted’, do you mean ‘turned up, half-pissed and unprepared, making ludicrous demands while clearly not understanding what a phone does before shambling off having achieved nothing beyond annoying your counterpart’?”

Edward Price wrote: “Six whole hours, just imagine people who wasted four whole years due to spectacularly incompetent customer support from their MPs.”

Radio X presenter Danny Wallace continued: “You hold all the cards! Simply walk away. No phone contract is better than a bad phone contract.”

Dmitry Grozoubinski added: “How could this have happened despite Vodafone’s considerable trade surplus with Mr Davis?”

@Liberal_Leigh shared: “David Davis: ‘I’ve wasted over six hours…’ Just imagine how bloody Michel Barnier feels…”

@Eyeswideopen69 quipped: “At least Davis now knows how we all felt when he was Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union.”