Shoppers were left perplexed after realising a free jam jar in a big-name supermarket fetched more than a full one.
Customers in Waitrose note that a jar of the store’s raspberry jam costs half that of an empty pot of the same size – £1.20 instead of £2.50.
Smooth a jar of well-known Bonne Maman strawberry conserve, also obtainable in the chain, was valued at just 15p more than an empty jar, at £2.65.
The items were mottled on sale at a branch of Waitrose in Worcester last week, prompting a flurry of statement on Twitter.
People talk about on the social media platform after someone posted a photo of an empty jar of jam available for 29p more than a whole pot of Bonne Maman, from 2017, with only a little appearing to have changed in 2023.
One Twitter user said: “Clean air is costly these days.”
Another wrote: “I re-use a clear Bonne Maman jar daily for overnight oats, and it beats me why people buy new jars.”
Someone claimed to buy a cheaper jar was about “taking back control.”
The news has been widely welcomed across Merseyside, where her reputation for targeting poor, disabled and vulnerable people proceeds her.
A former Wirral West MP, Ms McVey has been seen as a champion of benefit-slashing policies like The Bedroom Tax and Universal Credit.
Now an MP for Tatton, she has continually prompted anger with comments she has made during her political career, many of which have appeared to marginalise specific communities or vulnerable people.
“As time is tough, we all have to pay back this £1.5 trillion debt personally, which spiralled under Labour.”
She added: “The community has come together to support one another – that must be a positive move.”
The MP for Liverpool Wavertree at the time, Luciana Berger, said Ms McVey’s response still “haunted” her, telling the ECHO: “It was disgraceful and showed no empathy – I was on the benches going ballistic.”
This topic has landed the Tatton MP in hot water a few times.
In 2014 she sparked controversy by claiming there was “no robust evidence” linking food bank use to the government’s welfare cuts and austerity agenda.
In a letter, she stated: “The rise in food banks predates most of the welfare reforms this government has put in place.”
This was disputed at the time by the Trussell Trust, which said: “All the empirical evidence and research shows that welfare reform is the main force driving increasing demand for food banks.”
Even the current Department of Work and Pensions boss Amber Rudd has now admitted that there is a link between Universal Credit and foodbank use.
Champion of the Bedroom Tax
Throughout her political career, Ms McVey has always taken a position against the poor and vulnerable.
This was evident when she became the leading champion of the hated Bedroom Tax, which added cash burdens onto people deemed to have a ‘spare room’ and led to many evictions.
Ms McVey vehemently defended the measure – and claimed people who stayed put would be “more than happy”.
Benefit sanctions’ help’ people find work.
More outrage was caused when Ms McVey defended the sanctions imposed on benefit claimants for making minor mistakes in 2015.
She told a committee hearing in 2015: “For people who have been sanctioned, that helps them get into work.”
Misled Parliament over Universal Credit
In 2018 the then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions had to apologise for misleading Parliament after the head of the National Audit Office (NAO) wrote an open letter complaining that she had on three recent occasions misrepresented to MPs the contents of a critical report on Universal Credit.
McVey told MPs that the NAO report said Universal Credit, running six years behind schedule, should be rolled out more quickly. The NAO pointed out that it had concluded it should be paused.
Comments on LGBT relationships
During her recent failed bid for the Tory leadership, Ms McVey offended another section of society.
The MP said: “I believe parents know top for their children. While they’re still children – and we chat primary school [age] – the parents must have the final utter on what they want their children to know.”
