Tory Minister Paul Scully was asked how much a pint of milk costs, but struggled to answer.
Appearing on Sky News on Friday morning, host Samantha Washington said that some would say the Conservative party is “out of touch” over the cost of living, before asking: “I’m just wondering how in touch you are with all of this, can you tell us the national minimum wage is for example and the price for a pint of milk?”
The Sutton and Cheam MP immediately rhymed off that the national minimum wage is £8.91 and said it’s going up to £9.50.
Addressing the latter half of her question, he said he doesn’t buy his milk in pints, rather he opts for the four-pint cartons.
Washington asked for a rough estimation and although he tried to move the conversation on, she wouldn’t let it go.
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She asked how much it costs when he buys the large cartons of milk, and he tried to interject to say: “Sam it’s not about p…” before changing course and saying he buys it as part of a larger shop.
But he was cut off by Sam who continued pressing the point.
“It’s about demonstrating to the public that you are a government that understands the cost of living and the pressures on people’s budgets,” she said.
When she finished her question he responded: “Sam, what it’s about is it’s about making sure that we have a massive pandemic, as you unwind that pandemic you get into the global situations of supply chains, of energy costs affecting not just people in Britain but people around the world.
“We’ve got to make sure that we look after people within this country, what we’re doing is we’re targeting in particular the lowest paid, the people that are on minimum wage, the people that are on universal credit.”
But he still didn’t guess the price of a pint of milk.
The “price of milk test” has long been used as a measurement for how in touch politicians are in terms of the cost of living.
Previous politicians to stumble on the question include former US President George H W Bush and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Scully’s Conservative colleague Chancellor Rishi Sunak was previously quizzed over the cost of groceries by LBC’s Nick Ferrari.
When asked how much a pint of milk costs, Sunak rambled on about dairy farmers and said the carton Ferrari bought was bigger than the small ones he usually buys.
Spilt milk? No point crying over it.