Liz Truss fumbles with geography by saying she was in Derbyshire not Gloucestershire during hustings

Liz Truss appeared to mix up her shires in a geography gaffe at a Conservative Party hustings in Cheltenham on Thursday (August 9).

The foreign secretary who is hoping to win the leadership contest along with the keys to Number 10, informed audience members they were in Derbyshire when the hustings actually took place a bit further south in Gloucestershire.

It emerged when Truss was asked how she would help tackle the current cost of living crisis and set out her tax-lowering plan.

"What we shouldn't be doing is taking money off people in taxes and then giving it back to them and benefits. So the first thing we should be doing is lowering taxes.

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"On day one, what I would do is reverse the National Insurance increase, but also have a temporary moratorium on the green energy levy, saving people money on their fuel bills.

"We need to make sure we're using our reserves in the North Sea and incentivising companies to do that. We need to make sure we're fracking in parts of the country where there is local support for that taking place.

"We need to get on with delivering the small modular nuclear reactors which we produce here in Derbyshire, and we need to get on with nuclear power stations as well."

The crowd didn't call out the blunder, and Truss continued on without correcting her error.

And although Tory members at the hustings didn't appear to notice the mistake, others did and took no time to point it out on Twitter.

Labour's Shadow Levelling Up secretary Lisa Nandy simply tweeted: "God help us."

Comedian Janey Godley echoed a similar sentiment with her reaction: "Jesus suffering fack."

Liz Truss and fellow candidate, ex-chancellor Rishi Sunak have attended six hustings out of 12 in a tour of the country where they have visited cities including Leeds, Exeter, Eastbourne and Darlington.

Next, they will go to Perth, Belfast, Manchester, Birmingham, Norwich and London.

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