Liz Truss left the stage abruptly at an occasion to advertise her personal ebook after campaigners unfurled a banner behind her that was emblazoned with the phrase: “I crashed the economy” beneath an image of a lettuce.
The previous prime minister, who lasted 45 days in workplace, was in Suffolk on Tuesday discussing the US presidential election when the marketing campaign group Led By Donkeys lowered its remote-controlled banner with an enormous image of a lettuce.
She mentioned the prank was “not funny”. In a press release on X, Truss known as Led By Donkeys “far-left activists” who used the stunt as a way to “intimidate people and suppress free speech”.
On Tuesday she expressed her horror on the “attacks on free speech in Britain and Europe”.
Truss was expressing her assist for Donald Trump earlier than she was pranked. “I support Trump and I want him to win,” she mentioned earlier than the viewers applauded her. “It’s what I was saying a bit about incumbents. I think the average American is not doing well …
“I think it was Bill Clinton’s adviser who said: ‘It’s the economy stupid.’ So I think he [Trump] will, he probably will win. I’ve got a load of Trump questions, by the way.”
Moments later, because the host advised her he had “no idea where that’s come from”, some members of the viewers laughed, earlier than she muttered: “That’s not funny,” ripping the microphone from her gown and strolling off. She was applauded by some as she left.
The lettuce picture and joke arose from the ultimate days of Truss’s premiership, when the Each day Star launched a stay stream of a lettuce to see whether or not Truss’s battle to outlive in No 10 might last more than a 60p iceberg lettuce from Tesco.
Truss was making an attempt to advertise her memoir, Ten Years to Save the West, when Led by Donkeys wrote on X: “We just dropped in on Liz Truss’s pro-Trump speaking tour with a remote-controlled lettuce banner. She didn’t find it funny.”
On X, Truss mentioned: “What happened last night was not funny. Far-left activists disrupted the event, which then had to be stopped for security reasons. This is done to intimidate people and suppress free speech.
“I won’t stand for it. Would we see the same reaction if the activists were far-right?”
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Truss has turn out to be vocal on US politics, final month addressing Republican supporters and urging them to be taught classes from her transient time in No 10. She mentioned: “I’ve learned how powerful the unelected bureaucracy is. You have to win in November … you have to dismantle the leftist state … they are devious, they are ruthless and they are out to get you.”
The previous prime minister has beforehand criticised the Each day Star’s lettuce joke, saying it was not “particularly funny”, noting in June: “I just think it’s puerile.”
She went on to criticise the British media, claiming it was “known throughout the world for being particularly vociferous” and it isn’t “particularly deferential to politicians”.
The banner stunt got here shortly after Truss voiced her assist for Elon Musk, who has claimed the UK has a two-tier policing system. She mentioned on X: “I am appalled by the attacks on free speech in Britain and Europe. We can’t be truly free without free speech. Good for Elon Musk and X for standing up to these bullies.” Musk responded, thanking her for assist.
