This is obviously not a funny topic which is why this verbal gaffe is so funny. Labour leader Keir Starmer was in Liverpool addressing members of his own party when he somehow lost track of the war in Gaza and started thinking about breakfast.

“I call again for restraint and de-escalation at the border between Lebanon and Israel,” Starmer said. “Again, for all parties to pull back from the brink.

“I call again for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the return of the sausages — the hostages — and a recommitment to the two state solution, a recognized Palestinian state alongside a safe and secure Israel.”

The Conservative Party was quick to jump on this with a hilarious clip, mocking Starmer.

Keir Starmer uses his first big speech as Prime Minister to call for the return of the sausages pic.twitter.com/kl99t6z4nK

— Conservatives (@Conservatives) September 24, 2024

Starmer's current issues go well beyond this amusing gaffe. He's had a tough few weeks.

Starmer’s first months in office have been far from plain sailing. 

His government’s first big spending decision — a welfare cut for the elderly — has gone down spectacularly badly, while he has faced accusations of cronyism and hypocrisy amid a vicious briefing war between some of his closest allies in Downing Street. 

The early release of thousands of prisoners from Britain’s overcrowded jails was deemed necessary, but hardly popular with the wider public. In a matter of weeks, Starmer’s poll ratings have fallen through the floor.

Then word broke that Starmer has accepted more gifts than anyone else in government.

The scale of the freebies accepted by Starmer has raised eyebrows even among supporters. Sky News reported that Starmer has declared “gifts, benefits and hospitality” worth more than 100,000 pounds since December 2019, more than any other lawmaker.

The donations include thousands of pounds’ worth of tickets for Premier League games involving Starmer’s beloved team Arsenal.

“I’m a massive Arsenal fan,” Starmer told reporters during a trip to Rome this week. “I can’t go into the stands because of security reasons. Therefore, if I don’t accept a gift of hospitality I can’t go to a game. You could say, ‘Well bad luck.’ … But, you know, never going to an Arsenal game again because I can’t accept hospitality is pushing it a bit far.”

The latest twist is a burgeoning scandal that has already been dubbed "frockgage" by some. Starmer has received thousands of dollars in clothes both for himself and his wife and was late registering the gifts.

Party-frock-gate, as some have attempted to brand it already, sees the man once dubbed Mr Rules find himself having to spin as an “oversight” why he secretly took thousands of pounds worth of luxury clothes for his wife from an increasingly mysterious Labour donor...

Lord Alli had already raised eyebrows this summer with £20,000 of centrist dad clothes and glasses for the PM, and had to give back his No10 pass used to entertain fellow Labour backers in the Downing Street garden.

While the numbers involved may be relatively small in the grand scale of sleaze stories, it has long legs simply because Starmer was so damn pious as Leader of the Opposition, slamming similar late registrations of donations and prosecuting Boris Johnson’s wallpaper gifts with the zeal of a Monty Python witch-hunter.

Yet again, it is the perfect example of the man who stood on the steps of Downing Street promising that trust in politics could only be “healed by actions, not words”, speaking with a forked tongue.

The other issue stirring trouble for the new PM is the salary of his Chief of Staff, Sue Gray who is earning more than Starmer himself.

Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff received a pay rise after the election which means she is now paid more than the prime minister.

The BBC has been told that Sue Gray asked for and was given a salary of £170,000 - £3,000 more than the PM and more than any cabinet minister – or her Conservative predecessor.

One source told the BBC: "It was suggested that she might want to go for a few thousand pounds less than the prime minister to avoid this very story. She declined."...

"It speaks to the dysfunctional way No10 is being run - no political judgement, an increasingly grand Sue who considers herself to be the deputy prime minister, hence the salary and no other voice for the prime minister to hear as everything gets run through Sue," one insider told the BBC.

So this meeting in Liverpool was intended to be a moment for Starmer to shrug off these multiple problems and get back on his feet. I guess it remains to be seen whether he succeeded but the sausages gaffe probably didn't help.