Author eats his book on live TV show after wrong UK poll prediction

A British author ate his book during a live TV show after his prediction that the opposition Labour party would poll less than 38 per cent votes went wrong.

Matthew Goodwin, 35, a professor of politics at the University of Kent, is the co-author of Brexit: Why Britain voted to leave the European Union.

He said in a tweet last month that he did not think Jeremy Corbyn's Labour party would poll 38 per cent in the general election on June 8. However, the Labour party won 40.3 per cent of the vote.

"I'm saying this out loud. I do not believe that Labour, under Jeremy Corbyn, will poll 38%. I will happily eat my new Brexit book if they do," he had tweeted.

After the results came in, Goodwin was trolled by Labour supporters for his tweet.

Appearing on Sky News yesterday, he was asked if he is a man of his word, to which he replied: "Well indeed I am. I was surprised that Jeremy Corbyn got two percentage points more than I had expected, and I did say that I would eat this book," Metro news reported.

"Two percentage points makes a big difference, I am a man of my word, so what I am going to do is just sit here and eat my book, while you guys carry on," he said as he began eating pages of his book, the report said.

Goodwin scrunched up a piece of paper and uncomfortably shoved it into his mouth and said: "It is actually a hardback, there are lots of chemicals but I have got to get through the whole thing."

He then gave a slightly sad thumbs up to the camera.

Later, a Sky News producer tweeted that Goodwin did not swallow the page he was munching on, the report added.