Embattled UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has turned to Christmas classic Love Actually ahead of this week’s general election.
The three-minute clip parodies the famous scene, where Andrew Lincoln’s character Mark declares his love for Keira Knightly playing Juliet using a series of signs under the guise of fake Christmas carollers.
The sleek production calls on voters to ‘Vote Conservative Actually’ in an effort to get Brexit done by next year.
And while the video is a somewhat refreshing change from the usually drab world of political advertising, it has sparked collective outrages from Johnson’s critics.
None more high-profile than Love Actually star Hugh Grant, who pointed out to BBC Radio that Johnson and his team had chosen to omit one rather significant sign.
“I did notice that one of the cards from the original film that he didn’t hold up was the one where Andrew Lincoln held up a card saying ‘Because at Christmas you tell the truth’,” Grant said.
“And I just wonder if the spin doctors in the Tory party just thought that it was a card that wouldn’t look too great in Boris Johnson’s hands.”
But perhaps more concerning for Johnson has been the edited versions of Johnson holding up cards that have started to appear across social media.
That awful ‘Love Actually’ rip off that BJ did? Here are what he should have put on those signs.
I’ve added a blank one for you. Go to town. pic.twitter.com/EBoSJIMQT6
— 🦧Scowlin Munkeh (@scowlingmonkey) December 10, 2019
Some of the memes have highlighted some of Johnson’s rather unsavoury past comments.
But the peculiarity of Johnson’s gimmick has been rivalled by his counterpart Jeremy Corbyn, who shared a ‘mean tweets’ video.
The video, described by Corbyn as “surpringly fun”, even includes the leader of the Labour Party responding to a tweet which asked the burning question: “Anyone else started to find Jeremy Corbyn really sexy?”
This was surprisingly fun. pic.twitter.com/Tjl60l70bl
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) December 9, 2019
