Labour troll Tory coronavirus testing failure by tweeting graphic based on their own iconic 1970s advert

They say revenge is a dish best served cold.

And apparently the Labour party have taken that idiom to heart.

Which is why they’re currently responding to the apparent breakdown of the Tories’ coronavirus track-and-trace system with an iconic advert from the 1970s.

An advert the Tories made.

Labour MP Liam Byrne posted the mock up this morning, which shows a long queue stretching from a building labelled ‘Track and Trace Office’.

In block capitals, text on the image reads: “TORIES AREN’T TESTING”.

Alongside the image he wrote:

I've been visiting testing centres this morning 

The message is simple. 

It's chaos. 

And this chaos is risking a lockdown that will wipe out hundreds of thousands more jobs. 

For those born after 1979, a little backstory: the image Byrne posted is an edit of an infamous and very effective Tory advert.

As part of a campaign run in partnership with advertising moguls Saatchi & Saatchi, posters depicting long queues outside dole offices were created.

Text on them read “LABOUR ISN’T WORKING”.

Their impact was such that they were said to have helped Margaret Thatcher win power.

But in the wake of the Tories’ testing system for coronavirus collapsing, with no tests available in large areas of the country, a backlog of tests that need processing and a reported delay on results, those long queues have come back to haunt the Tories.

It’s not just Labour who are recalling the adverts.

The Daily Mirror also featured a version of the ad on its front page today.

And people have been impressed by the repurposing of such iconic imagery in a way that turns it on its head.

Political analysts broke down exactly why it was so effective.

The design of the new version was a bit shocked at how much it was picked up though.

Perhaps testing failures will finally be the swab that breaks the camel’s back?