Liz Truss has just failed an important leadership test

Truss had an opportunity to take on the emotional argument and present facts. Instead, she acquiesced to a view she must know isn’t true, writes Salma Shah

Playing to a gallery is a weakness of leadership (Reuters)

Liz Truss has just failed an important leadership test. At the latest hustings in sunny Darlington, she was asked who was to blame for Boris Johnson’s downfall? The question prompted shouts of “the media” from a Conservative audience. Her response was to cheerfully evade the question saying: “Who am I to disagree with this excellent audience?”

At the end of her questions the mic picked up her passing apology to seasoned lobby hack Tom Newton Dunn for having a go at the media, to which his correct response was it’s a “cheap shot”.

Not only is it cheap, it’s dangerous. The idea that Boris Johnson was not the architect of his own demise is a witless view. It’s disingenuous too, the entire reason she is in line for the top job is because Johnson was presiding over a dysfunctional government, she was there, occupying a ring-side seat.