Lettuce in wig outlasts Liz Truss premiership as PM’s political career wilts

Outgoing prime minister declines to congratulate Iceberg in brief resignation speech

It was the political battle everyone was talking about. Now, we have a victor: the lettuce won it.

Liz Truss has resigned as prime minister – and, in doing so, admitted defeat to a 60p salad leaf.

A live video stream asking if a slowly wilting Iceberg would last longer than the embattled Tory leader’s stint as prime minister has been an unexpected hit over the last week.

Now, while the salad mainstay has undoubtedly experienced some decay, its seven-day shelf life has given it the staying power required to see off Ms Truss’s troubled premiership.

She tapped out on Thursday following growing discontent with increasingly chaotic leadership.

In a brief speech outside Downing Street, she said: “I have spoken to the King to notify him I am resigning.”

The resignation came following a long meeting with Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 committee of backbench Conservative MPs. It is not known if the lettuce formed part of their discussions.

The brutal comedy contest was created by The Daily Star last Friday in response to the sacking of Ms Truss’s first chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng following the implosion of their joint mini budget.

The hijinks were inspired by a think-piece in The Economist magazine three days earlier which had noted that the total collapse of Ms Truss’s political power had meant she had effectively enjoyed only seven days in full control of her government. “That is the shelf-life of a lettuce,” the piece said.

Media across the world – including in the US, France, Spain, Sweden, Israel, Singapore and Australia – reported on the live video stream. A nickname, the Iceberg Lady, was used in headlines everywhere. “Now Liz Truss even has to fight a head of lettuce in the fight for her political career,” German tabloid Bild told its readers.

The lettuce itself has not yet commented on its astonishing victory – although an hour after the PM’s resignation it could be seen on the live stream surrounded by bottles of booze and with disco lights shimmering around it.