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Boris Johnson is arguing with a pork-pie maker and everyone is making the same joke

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Climate change, Brexit, the Irish backstop…there are a number of pressing issues for Boris Johnson to tackle, and he chose to turn his gaze to pork pies - and the jokes are coming fast.

The British prime minister has somehow become embroiled in a political dispute over exports and Melton Mowbray pork pies at the G7 summit in Biarritz.

Boris said the pork pies are exported to Thailand and Iceland, but not the US during a discussion about a potential post-Brexit free trade deal with the US.

He talked about wanting to “prise open the American market” by removing restrictions on UK exports.

The prime minister had said:

Melton Mowbray pork pies, which are sold in Thailand and in Iceland, are currently unable to enter the US market because of, I don't know, some sort of food and drug administration restriction.

However the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association (yes, that’s right) said the pies weren’t exported to Thailand or Iceland.

Matthew O’Callaghan, chair of the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association appeared on BBC 4’s Today programme to set the record straight.

Was Boris right? “Not really,” he said.

With all of these things there is a little bit of give and take. We don’t actually export to Thailand or Iceland.

Downing street has doubled down and insists they are, and cited Walker & Son, the producers as proof.

The bizarre beef doesn’t end there. Walker & Son clapped back, telling the BBC that it had previously exported a “tiny amount” of pork pies to Singapore but had not done so for “at least two years” and is now “entirely focused on the UK market.”

Of all the things to get in a conflict about, Boris chose pork pies.

The irony was not lost on people.

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