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Home office minister Anna Turley has responded to a report that Andy Burnham is “too blokey” on social media because of his references to football and downing pints at the pub.

The Times reported that a No 10 team had advised the prime minister to tone down his “blokeish” videos online that attempts to appeal to a wider audience.

In one such video to promote his recently announced 20% cut in business rates, Burnham is sat with chancellor John Healey ranking pub snacks (he picked crisps as his top choice, while Healey went for pork scratchings). It’s a similar format to the “snack wars” videos made popular by LadBible, and has amassed five million views on X.

When asked if Burnham was “too blokey”, Turley told LBC Radio: “Definitely not, I’m very partial to pubs and football myself, so I enjoyed his video on bar snacks. I think he is very authentic. That’s who he is and I think people want to see a politician who is who they are.”

She added: “Our communication has gone up substantially in terms of being authentic and reaching people.”