Liz Truss says tabloid ‘wet lettuce’ gag was not funny

Former PM brands prophetic stunt ‘puerile’

Former prime minister Liz Truss (James Manning/PA) (PA Archive)

A tabloid newspaper’s running joke that Liz Truss’s premiership would be outlasted by a lettuce was not funny, the former prime minister has said.

Ms Truss on Monday broke her silence over the prophetic gag, telling a conference: “I don’t think it’s funny, I just think it’s puerile.”

The Daily Star ran a series of irreverent front pages in the dying days of her premiership, provoking mirth on social media and beyond.

But speaking at the News Xchange conference in Dublin, Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister declined to say she could “see the funny side” of the joke.

“If I’ve got a criticism of the media – there’s too much focus on the people and seeing it as a sort of entertaining story to follow… rather than discussions of the ideas. And I particularly find that true on economics,” Ms Truss said.

“Did I and my colleagues get everything perfect about communication? No, we didn’t. But I think we’re operating in an environment where the economic ideas that I believe in are not widely understood.”

Ms Truss was ultimately outlasted by the lettuce, resigning after just 49 days in the job after her economic policies unleashed a wave of chaos on the markets. A “mini-budget” meant to kickstart economic growth instead came close to collapsing the pension system and sent mortgage interest rates soaring.

“I think the British media are known around the world for being particularly vociferous… I don’t think they’re particularly deferential to politicians,” she also told the conference.

But she said “irreverence” could be a good thing and that she would “rather live in a country where there is a robust debate than what the alternatives look like”.

Speaking at the same conference on Monday Ms Truss also moved to defend her predecessor, telling her audience that Boris Johnson's punishment for repeatedly holding parliament in contempt while prime minister is "overly harsh".

Mr Johnson's short-lived successor said: "None of us are perfect".

A privileges committee investigation into Mr Johnson published last week said the ex-PM should not get the complementary lifetime parliamentary security pass enjoyed by most former MPs.

It accused him of repeatedly misleading parliament over the Partygate scandal and attacking democratic institutions through a strongly-worded resignation statement that branded the inquiry a "witch hunt".

But Ms Truss, who served as foreign secretary under Mr Johnson, said she would unfortunately not be back in London in time to vote on the report in the House of Commons.

This means she will dodge the politically difficult choice of whether to vote for or against sanctions on Mr Johnson.

Either choice could potentially alienate groups of political supporters, were she ever to attempt to return to front line politics – as has been claimed by some allies.

But asked about the committee's findings, she said she believed its "judgment was pretty harsh".

"He himself has said he's made mistakes, and none of us are perfect," she said.

"I'm not questing the integrity of the report that parliamentarians have put forward. I think the judgment is pretty harsh, but I'm not questioning the integrity of those people."

Ms Truss said her predecessor had motivated some people with his vision of Britain and is "not popular among what you might call the sort of 'elite intelligentsia' in Britain".

"So yes, there are legitimate criticisms of Boris, but there are also a group of people who quite like the status quo the way it is, don't want things to change, didn't want Brexit, don't want to see economic reforms."

She added: "I'm not questioning the integrity of MPs, but I think really the sentence is overly harsh."