'It's been a long few days': Tory MP confuses Liz Truss for Theresa May

The Prime Minister seems to be losing more supporters every day, so it’s not a great look when one of her backers confuses her for someone else.

After her first conference speech as Conservative Party leader was interrupted by hecklers, Liz Truss would presumably have been counting on some warm words from loyal MPs.

Enter Ashfield’s Lee Anderson who, when quizzed on his reaction to the PM’s address, began by criticising the “gutter press” for “lurking around every corner, trying to cause problems”.

Unfortunately for Anderson, he then faced a problem entirely of his own making by name-checking the new leader as Theresa May. Oops.

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Speaking outside Birmingham’s ICC, the longtime Labour Party member-turned-Tory MP, told reporters that “what the Prime Minister had to say was pretty good” – admittedly not the most effusive praise – and that she was “talking the same language as the Red Wall voters”.

He continued: “She gets better and better every time I see her. I think we’ve made the right decision in the end to vote for her [...] and look, we’ve got two years now to get the country back on its feet and I think Liz is the person to do it.”

Asked whether there was enough in Truss’s speech to win over any floating voters in his constituency, Anderson said he “would hope so” but acknowledged that “the Red Wall is a Red Wall for a reason”.

He went on: “We had Brexit, we had Boris, we had Corbyn three years ago and now we’ve got Theresa May it’s a different ball game altogether.”

His interviewer then stepped in to remind him that the Prime Minister was, in fact, now Truss.

Anderson laughed sheepishly, before conceding: “My mistake, it’s been a long few days.”

It clearly has been for the Ashfield MP, who had already raised eyebrows earlier in the week.

Following the Government's decision to ditch plans to scrap the 45p top rate of tax announced on Monday, Anderson was asked for his view on the pretty tire-screeching U-turn.

"It's not a U-turn, it's a change of direction," he replied with a wry smile.

Suffice it to say, Twitter was unconvinced.

For someone who claims to shun the "gutter" press, he clearly likes to chat to reporters. But maybe it's time to take a little break.

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