Liz Truss fell victim to yet another lettuce-related stunt on Tuesday night while hosting a pro-Donald Trump speaking event in Suffolk.
The ex-prime minister was explaining to the crowd why she backed the former US president and Republican candidate for re-election – and why Americans were struggling with the economy – when she was rudely interrupted.
But Truss seemed completely oblivious as a banner depicting a lettuce (with goggly eyes) slowly unfurled from the ceiling behind her.
To make matters worse, it had the words, “I crashed the economy” written on there, too.
And, presumably by pure luck, she happened to be wearing a green, leaf-y coloured dress.
Truss did not realise she had been upstaged by the remote-controlled banner until someone else came on stage and pointed it out to her.
The person she was speaking to on stage said he had “no idea where that came from” – at which point, hesitant giggles started to break out in the audience.
But Truss looked up at it, and said: “That’s not funny.”
She stormed off stage while a reluctant smattering of applause filled the room.
The stunt, from activist group Led By Donkeys, is a throwback to the famous Daily Star trick, where the newspaper set up a livestream of a lettuce to see which would last longer – Truss’s career in Downing Street after her mini-Budget or the salad item.
A one-minute video of the stunt quickly went viral overnight, racking up 2.3 million views over less than 12 hours.
Truss later wrote on X: “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?”
Led By Donkeys performed a similar prank with Reform UK’s Nigel Farage at the end of June.
They infuriated the populist leader by setting up a banner of Russian president Vladimir Putin and the words “I ❤️ Nigel” behind him when Farage was on the campaign trail.
Ironically, Truss’s furious reaction came just hours after she advocated for free speech on X, writing: “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 had called her “Liz ‘Lettuce’ Truss” only three days before.
Her comments followed PM Keir Starmer’s pledge to hold social media bosses to account for not policing their platforms effectively, after disinformation helped galvanise far-right, anti-immigration riots across the UK earlier this month.
Truss – who lost her seat in parliament at the general election, less than two years after her £45bn of unfunded tax cuts crashed the economy – has been trying to make a name for herself in the US recently.
She has become an avid supporter of Trump, while also repeatedly trying to blame the Bank of England for her disastrous mini-Budget.