Comedians Nish Kumar and David Baddiel are among the celebrities to lead reactions to Liz Truss’s resignation after just six weeks as prime minister.
In a speech outside Downing Street on Thursday 20 October, Truss announced that her replacement would be found within the next week, making her the shortest-serving prime minister in UK history.
The politician’s resignation came after 15 Tory MPs publicly called for her to step down, following a chaotic six weeks that included a disastrous mini-budget, the firing of former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and the resignation of former home secretary Suella Braverman.
Reacting to the news, Piers Morgan tweeted: “What an absolute shambles.”
Comedian David Baddiel posted: “That speech contained the words ‘to take advantage of the opportunities of Brexit’. That’s the key. The first actual real attempt to make the UK Singapore-on-Thames spectacularly failed. The entire s***ty s*** show needs to be seen in that light.”
Screenwriter Jack Thorne wrote: “People are going to die while this Conservative party attempts to fix itself. Constitutional right is not the same as legitimacy.”
Comic Nish Kumar joked: “Even Quibi lasted longer than her.” Quibi was a very short-lived American short-form streaming platform that launched in April 2020 and was shut down by that December.
Referring tothe Daily Star’s experiment to see whether a lettuce would outlast Truss’s premiership, comedian Sofie Hagen posted: “Hang on, I have only briefly skimmed the news – is the lettuce now our new prime minister?”
Actor Daniel Mays said: “Bats*** crazy. First Boris, now this. How long did the @Conservatives contest take? All the TV debates. All the speeches. All the bulls***. She lasted 6 WEEKS! Meantime our country goes from bad to worse. Call a General Election now. We need change. We need leadership @UKLabour.”
Comic Alistair Green joked: “Goodness me these antics from the government are like something from an episode of the satirical television show the thick of things for heavens sake!”
Radio presenter Alice Levine tweeted: “Was Truss even in the flat at No 10 long enough for BT Broadband to give her an appointment to connect the internet? PM on a dongle, it’s no life.”
Rishi Sunak, Jeremy Hunt, Penny Mordaunt and Ben Wallace have all been touted as possible successors to Truss.
