The shortest-serving British Prime Minister in history has always maintained that being compared to a lettuce was not funny, but if Liz Truss had just rolled with the punches and laughed it off at the time, people would have probably stopped bringing it up by now.

Truss was promoting her memoir ‘Ten Years to Save the West’ at Beccles Public Hall and Theatre in Suffolk last night, and was just done praising Donald Trump, when this happened:

We just dropped in on Liz Truss’s pro-Trump speaking tour with a remote-controlled lettuce banner. She didn’t find it funny. 🥬 pic.twitter.com/jtSqaxycfF

— Led By Donkeys (@ByDonkeys) August 13, 2024

Clearly, she still doesn’t caesar funny side (sorry) as she ended up leaving the stage and wrapping the event up early, which has left some attendees fuming on Facebook and demanding a £16.50 refund for their ticket.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Lizz Truss / lettuce origin story; it all began during the time of her Premiership, when the Daily Star started a live stream of a lettuce, asking which would last longer in a ‘Liz vs Lettuce’ contest. Its front page asked: ‘How long can wet lettuce Liz romaine?’, which was pretty brutal. Especially as the lettuce ended up winning when Truss resigned.

Asked about being compared to a lettuce at the time, Truss had said:

‘I don’t think that’s particularly funny I just think it’s puerile.

I think that the British media are known throughout the world for being particularly vociferous and I don’t think they are particularly deferential to politicians.

It’s frustrating because I came into politics because I wanted to change the country, I want to push particular ideas, and it is frustrating when you get diverted onto a discussion of what hat you’re wearing, or whether you like photographs, all this other stuff, rather than one of the crucial issues that are affecting Britain, Europe, Ireland and the US.

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 – it’s a bit playground when there are really serious issues going on.’

Well, what does she think? That we’re not going to mock the people in the most powerful positions in the country? It’s what makes a country free! Even the #BeKind crowd will suspend their hashtag to take the mick out of you if you’re someone they don’t like.

Truss also said when she attended international summits she would get ‘a lot of sympathy’ from politicians abroad about the way she was treated, so at least someone out there sympathises. Not to mention – she gets off pretty light compared to some of her peers.