Joe Anderson says he is ‘sick and tired’ of the Tory leadership candidate trying to portray herself as someone who understands working-class issues

You can take the scouser out of Liverpool, but they will always be a scouser – except if you’re Esther McVey. The Tory leadership hopeful is having a miserable week, starting with getting on the wrong side of her former breakfast TV colleague Lorraine Kelly. Now the mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, has revoked the Tatton MP’s “scouse privileges”.

If you are a Liverpudlian wondering how to get your hands on your own scouse privilege card, like the mock-up Anderson tweeted (with a red “REVOKED” stamp on it), don’t bother – they don’t exist. However, Anderson says, behind the stunt is a serious point about McVey’s integrity: “She tries to portray herself as somebody who has equality at heart. But the reality is completely at odds with what she’s done.”

Joe Anderson (@mayor_anderson) Tory austerity has had a terrible effect on Liverpool. This city stands for community, fairness & justice. At DWP & as Tory Party Leader hopeful, Ester McVey’s record flies in face of that proud tradition. READ in @MirrorPolitics https://t.co/5It2bnMRlp pic.twitter.com/zxWYHkYdMl

Anderson says he is “sick and tired” of McVey trying to portray herself as someone who understands working-class issues and poverty. “Here is a woman using the brand of Liverpool to claim she is fair; that she has a knowledge of what it’s like to be working class.”

Anderson says cuts to the city’s budget have led to an increase in demand for food banks, which McVey has defended in the past. “For somebody who says food banks are a good thing because it shows a ‘Big Society mentality’ – well, what I think it shows is a broken society,” he says. “Scousers have principles. They care for one another, they stand up for one another, they protect one another … Anyone who doesn’t do that, in my view, is not a true scouser.”

So who would be Anderson’s pick for Tory leader? Unsurprisingly, he says he has just as much contempt for the other candidates, none of whom, he says, have the integrity to solve the country’s problems. “There is not one of them I would vote for. I would simply, if I had an opportunity to vote, spoil my ballot paper.” But the worst option for him would be Boris Johnson, who once said the chances of him becoming prime minister were “about as good as the chances of finding Elvis on Mars”. Anderson suggests an alternative: “I’d rather exhume Elvis Presley and put him as prime minister.”