Jacinda Ardern fiercely defends Mosgiel after Judith Collins' cheese roll snub

Jacinda Ardern has stepped up to defend Mosgiel after her opponent Judith Collins snubbed a local cafe which had specially prepared lunch for her.

Collins was expected to pop into Blend Espresso on Thursday where the staff had been told to make sure there were cheese rolls ready and waiting for the National Party leader - but she never arrived.

Instead, she left Mosgiel entirely and headed to the seaside town of St Clair - where she did indulge in a cheese roll, away from the watching eyes of the media.

In Newshub's podcast Kitchen Cabinet, political reporter Jenna Lynch revealed Ardern staunchly defended the Dunedin town, and got in a subtle dig at Collins' when she heard what occurred.

"The news of the cheese roll snub reverberated through Gisborne airport not too long ago," Lynch told guest host Lisette Reymer.

"And then we found out it was a Mosgiel cafe and Ardern just piped up with 'don't disrespect Mosgiel.'"

The retort is alluding to Collins' telling Ardern not to "disrespect Samoa" during the Stuff Leaders Debate.

Collins' comment followed her claim Samoa closed it's border a month before New Zealand did to protect against COVID-19. 

"That is factually incorrect," Ardern interjected at the time.

"It did so, and actually don't disrespect Samoa, they kept it out," Collins' snapped back.

Samoa closed its borders a day after Ardern announced New Zealand's would close, but imposed travel restrictions to travellers from hot spots in February. 

Collins' cheese roll snub made headlines not only locally, but globally, with the Daily Mail reporting the refusal to eat "a strange rolled up cheese snack" caused an upset.

Collins said she had no idea the cafe was expecting her, as she hadn't arranged it.

She added that while she enjoyed cheese rolls, she didn't want the media to see her eat them.

"I refuse to have the media there for a cheese roll because that is all they want to talk about," she said.

Taieri National candidate Liam Kernaghan visited the Blend Cafe later in the afternoon to make up for the no-show. 

"Got there in the end" he tweeted, alongside a photograph of staff holding the jumbo cheese rolls. 

Political reporter Tova O'Brien told her Kitchen Cabinet co-hosts she could understand why Collins might have wanted to side step the snacks.

"We went to [Blend] for lunch, beautiful cafe, thank you very much," O'Brien said

"But [the cheese rolls], they're about eight times the size of a normal cheese roll!

"So I kind of can't blame her...,there is an old trope, politicians should not be caught on camera eating and there is a good reason for that."