Liz Truss has finally spoken out about the lettuce that outlived her premiership

Ever wondered whether Liz Truss saw the funny side when a lettuce outlived her time as Prime Minister? Well, the answer is a resounding no.

Speaking at the European Broadcasting Union’s NewsXchange conference in Dublin on Monday, Truss said: “I don’t think it was particularly funny, I think it’s puerile.”

While Truss was in office last year, the Daily Star ran a livestream of an iceberg lettuce in a blonde wig, challenging the former Prime Minister to last longer than the vegetable’s shelf life.

She resigned after 44 days of chaotic policymaking, which included a raft of unfunded tax cuts which sent markets into freefall. Meanwhile, the lettuce was still going strong.

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Asked by Irish broadcaster RTÉ what she thought about the stunt, she said: “I mean, what’s the relevance of that? This is what I’m talking about. To me it’s not a very relevant question.”

The Daily Star has since hit back, describing her in an article as a “fun sponge”.

Meanwhile, social media users were bemused by her comments. One person joked: “Still found it impossible to romaine in the job though.”

Another commenter added: “Au contraire, those were truly her salad days.”

The 47-year-old also criticised the UK’s media more widely for treating politics as a “soap opera” and saying much of the reporting is “froth” that fails to engage with “the underlying principles” of current affairs.

“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,” she added.

“I think the level of understanding of economic ideas in the media and the ability to explain them is very poor indeed.”

Economists across the political spectrum heavily criticised Truss’s economic policy while she was in power, including the International Monetary Fund, which is part of the United Nations.

Truss added: “I think the British media are known around the world for being particularly vociferous… I don’t think they’re particularly deferential to politicians.

“Certainly, when I went to international summits I would get a lot of sympathy from politicians from other countries who were saying: ‘My God, your press. What are those people like?’”

But, she admitted that the media’s irreverence is “a good thing on the whole”.

“Although I have suffered, personally, from it, I’d rather live in a country where there is a robust debate than what the alternatives look like.”

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