Malcolm Turnbull, Australia’s prime minister, has been ridiculed for using a knife and fork to eat a meat pie, prompting claims he has upended a venerated tradition and left the nation “forever changed”.

In a move likened to Ed Miliband’s awkward consumption of a bacon sandwich in 2014, Mr Turnbull sat down to eat a pie during a campaign stop in Tasmania and opted to use cutlery.

Footage of the incident was posted on his Instagram account and quickly prompted fierce debate.

“A pie that small should, and always will be, only eaten by a technique that is learned when you go to a school with a tuck shop,” one person wrote on Twitter.

“Two hands. Gently press down on the far side whilst slightly slurping the near side.”