CHANCELLOR Jeremy Hunt told the Conservative Party Conference that he wants to see Barbie “wearing a Union Jack” after the hit movie was filmed in Britain.
Speaking in Manchester, Hunt said the Tories planned to make the UK a “global leader in the industries of the future” and that the UK would be the “next Silicon Valley”.
He said: “Last year, we became only the third trillion-dollar tech economy in the world. Our tech sector is now double the size of Germany’s and three times France.
“British-discovered vaccines and treatments saved seven million lives across the world in the pandemic, more than from any other country.
“We do more offshore wind than anywhere in Europe, we’ve got three huge electric car factories being built.”
The Chancellor then added that the UK was “Europe’s biggest film and TV production centre”.
Barbie, one of the biggest films of the summer which has grossed over $1.4 billion at the box office, was filmed at Warner Brothers Studios in Leavesden, England.
Hunt added: “Next time I want to see Barbie wearing a Union Jack because that too was filmed in Britain.”
Many social media users took to Twitter/X to poke fun at Hunt for his comments. “What a legacy after 13 years of allegedly Conservative government”, one person said.
Another commented: “This is so much drivel it’s unreal”, while a third added that the speech was “embarrassing”.
“They had 13 years to do all this and failed”, a fourth user said.
It’s been an eventful Tory conference as Rishi Sunak comes under pressure on the future of HS2 amid reports the project would only run from London to Birmingham.
However, the PM has said he will not be forced into a “premature decision”.
“What I want to do is make the right decision for the country. This is an enormous amount of people’s money, taxpayers’ money, everybody watching, billions and billions of pounds”, he told BBC Breakfast.
