‘Believe in the bin’: Rory Stewart amuses debate viewers with Brexit analogy
Conservative leadership hopeful Rory Stewart got laughs from the audience Channel 4's leadership debate as he compared Brexit negotiations with trying to get bags of rubbish into a bin.
While speaking about Brexit with fellow runners Michael Gove and Dominic Raab, Mr Stewart criticised the "competition of machismo" in the debate, saying he was not a "defeatist" but "realistic" about Brexit.
He said: "It reminds me of, I was trying to cram a whole series of rubbish bins into the rubbish bin and my wife said, 'you're never going to get these three huge bags of rubbish in'. I was tempted like Michael and like Dom to say, 'believe in the bin! Believe in Britain! It's nonsense!"
Who had 'believe in the bin' in their #C4debate slogan tombola tonight?
— Joel Taylor (@JoelTaylorhack) June 16, 2019
Social media users enjoyed the analogy, with several people on Twitter quoting the phrase "believe in the bin".
The Q&A-style Tory leadership debate took place on Channel 4 on Sunday evening, and began with a question from the audience about how the party can beat Jeremy Corbyn and Nigel Farage in an election.
Michael Gove was the first to answer: "There is nothing more important than preventing Jeremy Corbyn getting into Parliament."
Rory Stewart is trying to make "believe in the bin" a thing in the same way #LoveIsland is trying to make "it is what it is" a thing #C4Debate
— Jane Merrick (@janemerrick23) June 16, 2019
In the first televised debate of the leadership campaign, the five candidates taking part all agreed the next prime minister had to take Britain out of the EU.
An empty podium reserved for Boris Johnson, who declined to take part in the debate, was placed at centre stage, between Sajid Javid and Dominic Raab.
The audience was made up of "floating voters" willing to choose the Tories at an election.