King Charles’ coronation: Prime Minister Chris Hipkins gifted sausage rolls from the King

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins was all smiles as he met with King Charles ahead of this weekend’s coronation - and was even gifted a tray of sausage rolls from the monarch.

Speaking to media after their meeting, Hipkins said they had shared conversations about a range of issues affecting New Zealand as a country and the Kiwi public; including the recovery effort after Cyclone Gabrielle.

“The King’s been closely following the recovery from the flooding and the cyclone and so he had wanted to talk about that - and that led into a broader conversation about climate change.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins meets King Charles in the UK. Photo / Getty Images

“The King has a really active interest in New Zealand; having been a regular visitor to New Zealand and I’m sure he’ll intend to continue to be a regular visitor in the future.”

Royal sausage rolls

Hipkins also proudly showed off a tray of sausage rolls he said had been gifted to him by the King.

Smiling from ear-to-ear, he posed with the small tinfoil tray, which had been lined with a white doily and looked to have held about five sausage rolls.

King Charles gifted Prime Minister Chris Hipkins a doggy bag full of warm sausage rolls after their meeting at Buckingham Palace this afternoon (he’s already eaten most of them) pic.twitter.com/y65VZqeFQc

— Katie Scotcher (@katiescotcher) May 3, 2023

There were only two left by the time Hipkins started posing for photos with it.

Eagle-eyed Kiwis will notice, however, that a key condiment is missing - tomato sauce.

Hipkins’ love of sausage rolls is no secret and this is not the first time the meaty delicacies have been presented to him as a gift.

For his birthday last September, Police intelligence staff presented him with a sausage roll birthday cake.