According to a former staffer, Liz Truss detests being on television so much that her team used to fabricate the deaths of her relatives to get her out of interviews.
When Ms. Truss was justice minister, Kirsty Buchanan served as her media advisor. She said that they ultimately “run out of reasons” to avoid going on Question Time.
Speaking to the Whitehall Sources podcast, she also acknowledged that Ms Truss had instructed assistants to prevent her from appearing on the topical discussion program with a certain other individual, only for them to later see him in the green room.
The discovery was made by Ms. Buchanan, who collaborated with Ms. Truss in 2016 and 2017. The now-PM is struggling to hold onto her position due to a string of unfavorable media appearances.
“Liz Truss, when I worked for her, she didn’t like the media, so we used to spend quite a lot of time making up reasons and dying off minor members of her family so she didn’t have to appear on Question Time,” the former journalist and special advisor said.
When questioned, she said, “I’m not talking about important family members; I’m simply talking about little folks like aunts and cousins and whatnot.”
When Ms. Truss was justice minister, Kirsty Buchanan served as her media advisor. She said that they ultimately “run out of reasons” to avoid going on Question Time.
The discovery was made by Ms. Buchanan, who collaborated with Ms. Truss in 2016 and 2017. The now-PM is struggling to hold onto her position due to a string of unfavorable media appearances.
We ultimately had to go on Question Time because we ran out of reasons not to. She told me, “I don’t care who is on the panel as long as it’s not X,” and I won’t tell you who X is. Then, when we arrived in the green room, there was the one person she didn’t want to be on a panel with.
She turned to face me, and if looks could kill, I said, “Sorry!”
He is a frequent baiter for her, so I’m not sure whether they did it on purpose.
In the period from 2012 to 2019, Ms. Truss made nine appearances on Question Time. During her tenure as justice secretary, she shared panels with male guests like the Reverend Giles Fraser, Julian Fellow, Frank Field (creator of Downton Abbey), Neil Hamilton (former Tory MP turned local Ukip leader), Owen Jones (a left-wing commentator), Menzies Campbell (a former Lib Dem leader), and Peter Hitchens.