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As new chancellor, you might expect John Healey to carry any number of important items in his ministerial Red Box to help him cope with the huge pressures he faces.
Such as a copy of the vital so-called ‘fiscal rules’ Andy Burnham has promised the Treasury will stick to in order to reassure financial markets. Or perhaps a calculator to keep an eye on the dizzying and ever rising levels of government debt?
We have yet to discover if Mr Healey carries either of these with him. But we do know one of the items he regards as so essential that he takes it everywhere with him: a bottle of HP sauce.
And it has nothing to do with the fact that the famous 100-year old brand was named after the Houses of Parliament and features an image of Big Ben on the label.
Yorkshireman Mr Healey just loves the well-known brown sauce, has it with virtually everything – and refuses to be fobbed with alternative versions.
Asked if it was true that he takes a bottle of HP sauce with him everywhere in a BBC interview conducted before he was appointed, the Chancellor said: ‘It is true.’
Laughing at his own food foible, he joked: ‘I suppose a politician’s answer would be that I’m an MP so I carry HP sauce.’
However, he went on: ‘But the hard truth of it is that I love HP sauce – and these days, you often get a brown-sauce substitute.’
Mr Healey said his bottle of HP sauce had occasionally been confiscated when it fell foul of airport security anti-terrorism rules on taking liquids on foreign flights. But he made sure he was not without a bottle for long: “I just get another one.”
Mr Healey is not the first politician to have a food fixation. Former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown reportedly ate nine bananas per day.
Margaret Thatcher would get through late-night work sessions at No 10 sustained by Welsh Rarebit – toasted cheese with poached egg on top.
It is said that US president Richard Nixon’s favourite dish was cottage cheese doused in tomato ketchup.
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