Shadow minister gets a poor chain reaction

The Conservatives’ attempt to import the antics of US politicians at every possible opportunity continues apace – to the extent that one member of the shadow cabinet has now taken to waving a chainsaw around, Elon Musk-style.

Andrew Griffith, the – checks – shadow business secretary has posted an absurd video to YouTube in which he appears to chop through a copy of Angela Rayner’s Employment Rights Bill, which enhances workers’ rights in areas such as redundancy, parental leave and whistleblowing – with an Efco chainsaw.

“Politicians like to talk about how they’re gonna cut red tape, but when in government they never do,” says Griffith, who may have missed that he was a politician in government for much of the past decade, serving as a minister under Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.

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“The next Conservative government will repeal all of the job-destroying measures in that bill. We’ll effectively take a chainsaw to Labour’s job-killing bill,” he adds, before literally applying a chainsaw to all 300 pages of the bill to the strains of Time To Say Goodbye.

Alas for Griffith, thought to be one of the wealthiest members of the shadow cabinet with a fortune in the tens of millions, the video has been largely met with mirth online. Viewers have noted that Griffith appears to struggle to get through the bill, to the point a second chainsaw of a different brand, Makita, is employed to do the job, and at no point is there a full body shot of him wielding the tool in action, leading some to conclude a stunt double was used. Meanwhile, while loudly shouting the virtues of slashing red tape, Griffith is an enthusiastic supporter of Brexit, which has increased it massively.

Still, at least few people have seen his silly stunt. At the time of writing, and 24 hours after he posted it online, his YouTube video has been viewed just 303 times.