Liz Truss takes 242 days to break silence on being compared to a lettuce
Liz Truss has finally spoken out about the infamous lettuce which survived her – and funnily enough, she is not happy.
The shortest-serving prime minister in British history resigned exactly 242 days ago on October 20, 2022, after a chaotic premiership.
The Daily Star newspaper started a live stream asking which would last longer in a tongue-in-cheek ‘Liz vs Lettuce’ contest.
Its front page asked: ‘How long can wet lettuce Liz romaine?’ and received widespread attention across the world.
And against all the odds, the lettuce came through victorious.
At the News XChange journalism conference today in Dublin, Ireland, Ms Truss said some elements of the media are ‘froth’.
Addressing the stunt, she said: ‘I don’t think that’s particularly funny I just think it’s puerile.’
Hitting out at the media further, she added: ‘I think that the British media are known throughout the world for being particularly vociferous and I don’t think they are particularly deferential to politicians.
‘It’s frustrating because I came into politics because I wanted to change the country, I want to push particular ideas, and it is frustrating when you get diverted onto a discussion of what hat you’re wearing, or whether you like photographs, all this other stuff, rather than one of the crucial issues that are affecting Britain, Europe, Ireland and the US.
‘I do think sometimes politics is sort of treated as a branch of the entertainment industry.
‘Who’s up, who’s down, who says what about who – it’s a bit playground when there are really serious issues going on.’
She said when she attended international summits she would get ‘a lot of sympathy’ from politicians abroad about the way she was treated.
Ms Truss added although ‘robust debate’ is ‘a good thing overall’, she thinks following politicians around and ‘shouting things at them is not really journalism’.
She was also asked whether she tries to dress like Baroness Margaret Thatcher, to which she responded: ‘I just think, frankly, it’s lazy thinking on people’s part. It’s not something I have ever consciously sought to do at all.’
People like to compare female UK prime ministers because ‘there aren’t that many of us’, she added, with the third being Theresa May.
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