Liz Truss, lettuce and the Deep State: Seven car crash moments from former PM’s book tour

In the lead-up to the release of her memoirs, Liz Truss may have spent more days promoting the book than she did serving as prime minister.

The Tory MP, who took over from Boris Johnson in the summer of 2022, offered a look behind the scenes of Ten Years to Save the West in a series of television and radio interviews.

Despite some very negative reviews, it seems the promotion has worked as the book soared to the fourth best-selling book on Amazon on Wednesday morning.

Much like her short-lived premiership, the interview round did not go entirely smoothly.

Here are some of the most memorable moments.

Ms Truss appeared not to know which way was up when she promoted the memoir on American television.

Speaking to Fox News about her decision to endorse Donald Trump, she did not miss the chance for a quick plug.

“Here’s my new book,” she said, beaming as she held the back cover up to the camera.“I’ll just get it up – sorry I’ll get it up front, there we are,” she said as she struggled to hold it correctly.

She then realised her mistake, flipping it and revealing the front, but upside down.

The Daily Star infamously marked Ms Truss’ brief tenure in Downing Street by comparing her longevity to that of a lettuce.

While the stunt won widespread praise at the time, it appears that two years later Ms Truss still fails to see the funny side.

She claimed it was “just pathetic” when she was questioned by BBC News political editor Chris Mason on Monday.

Mr Mason said: “Your time as prime minister left the UK an international laughing stock.”

Ms Truss responded: “I don’t think that’s true.”

“But, all the stuff about lasting less than the lettuce?” Mr Mason asked.

“This is just pathetic point scoring, this is the kind of thing that obsesses the London elite,” Ms Truss replied.

In recent months, Ms Truss has styled herself as fighting a shadowy global elite, fighting the ‘establishment’, despite a Tory government running the country for the last 14 years.

In a bizarre video posted on her social media, she claimed that purchasing a copy would help the free world “win again”.

“If you want to take on the leftist establishment, if you want conservatives and the free world to win again, buy my book,” she said.

Ms Truss – who used to be a Liberal Democrat – claimed that those with left-wing political beliefs were “smearing” her by blaming her for economic troubles she is “clearly not responsible for.”

In an interview on LBC, Iain Dale questioned her over the turmoil triggered by her then-chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget which prompted the pound to slump to a 37-year low against the dollar.

Ms Truss told the LBC presenter: “I think a lot of the public understand what I was trying to do.”

“But the left… [are] trying to smear me with economic results that… I’m clearly not responsible for.”

In an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, Ms Truss claimed the US economic establishment is “arming against Mr Trump and his economic program.”

“The administrative state undermined Mr Trump’s first term and undermined my tenure as Britain’s prime minister, forcing me out of office after 49 days,” she wrote.

“I assumed that I would be able to drive through the agenda on which I was elected. How wrong I was. The opaque British bureaucratic state undermined my proposed reforms, and their American equivalents will have Mr. Trump in their sights if he is victorious in November.

“The deep state will attempt to undercut him even more than it did in his first term.”

During the 2016 Brexit referendum, Ms Truss endorsed Remain arguing it was in the UK’s best economic interest. In the years since then, she has U-turned and become an ardent Brexiteer.

Again speaking on LBC, Ms Truss said she may have backed Vote Leave if she had “time for more existential thinking”.

Wanting to leave the EU was “considered quite a far out, fringe position,” she added.

“Had I spend more of my time thinking about it during those years, I might have come to share that view… but I had been busy as a minister, knee-deep in floods and other distractions”.

Ms Truss became prime minister on 6 September 2022 and resigned 45 days later, becoming the shortest-serving prime minister in British political history.

Despite this, and widespread criticism for her economic policy, Ms Truss has not ruled out another run at Conservative Party leader.

“It’s never wise to rule anything out in politics, is it?” she told LBC, claiming she had “unfinished business”.

Asked if she would want to return to frontline politics in the event the Conservatives lose the coming general election, Ms Truss said: “I definitely have unfinished business. Definitely. And I think the Conservative Party has unfinished business.

“I think, if we’re honest with ourselves, we haven’t done enough to reverse the Blair legacy.”

Source: UK Politics - www.independent.co.uk