It’s funny to Americans that British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a special election on July 4 – the very day we celebrate declaring our independence from Ye Olde England – but the merch is no joke, despite some punny slogans.
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In the U.K., party affiliations with red and blue are the reverse of the U.S. The liberal Labour Party shop offers a variety of red apparel and accessories, including bucket hats, supporter scarves (of course) and cloth tote bags emblazoned with “Totes not Tories” or “Totes Labour.”
There’s also a “Change” collection featuring a cartoon ballot box mascot, plus a “Little Labour” capsule with a toy truck and onesies reading “First Steps for Change” – with “CHANGE” repeated in red across the bum – and “Future Mayor of London.”
👕🧣 Our Labour Shop team has released our 2024 election campaign merch, with mugs, stickers, t-shirts and scarves featuring our slogan Change as well as new artwork.
— Labour Training (@LabourTraining) June 24, 2024
Share the link with your family and friends: https://t.co/whicys9l46 pic.twitter.com/XDhI3i8pq9
There’s also a message about ethical sourcing that says, “We require all our partners to meet strict environmental, health and safety, social, and labour standards.”
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The merch for the conservative Tory Party is reportedly less cheeky, with the standard array of mugs, posters, T-shirts and the like. Victoria Moss opined in The Standard that, “You could also sup tea from the world’s most boring mug, which is inscribed with the snore-slogan of ‘Clear plan, bold action, secure future.’”
Moss also reports that the party offers “Toby jugs” (large ceramic mugs) depicting Tory leaders from Winston Churchill to Boris Johnson. (Similar pieces are available from the nonpartisan Houses of Parliament shop as well.) Other nostalgia-driven items feature 1980s PM Margaret Thatcher or celebrate Brexit.
The party did offer snarkier novelty items, such as the sold-out red flip-flops mocking Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer for his many position reversals.
But the “shop” link at Conservatives.com, the Tories’ page, was inaccessible as of this writing – perhaps a harbinger for the party’s fate at the polls? And while plenty of “Ready for Rishi” tees are available on Amazon, with similar pieces at other outlets like Etsy, Redbubble and TeePublic, there’s a lot more anti-Tory merch out there. Also, the party hasn’t updated the featured “shop” video on its Instagram page in almost four years:
IMAGE: Instagram/@conservatives
