Rivals mock Liz Truss for avoiding interviews in run up to Tory leadership election
6612 Mins Read
UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has been accused of ‘running scared’ after pulling out of a BBC interview which she had reportedly already accepted.
Her rival to the leadership of the Conservative Party, and consequently to the post of Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has already given this interview. The Foreign Secretary had agreed to a primetime interview with the veteran political journalist Nick Robinson on BBC One.
The BBC said that “Ms Truss’s team say she can no longer spare the time to appear on Our Next Prime Minister We regret that it has not been possible to do an in-depth interview with both candidates despite having reached agreement to do so.” In a tweet, Robinson said he had been pleased that Truss had agreed to the interview and he was “disappointed and frustrated it’s been cancelled”.
Sunak’s campaign pointed out that Truss had only given two interviews during the campaign wheras Sunak had given nine.
Truss was mocked also from across the political spectrum. Wendy Chamberlain, the Liberal Democrats’ chief whip, said: “Liz Truss is running scared of the media and proper public scrutiny. How can she lead our country through an economic crisis when she can’t even cope with a basic media interview? She wants to follow in Margaret Thatcher’s footsteps but she’s fallen at the first hurdle. She’s fighting for the highest office by answering the lowest number of difficult questions”.
The Labour Party said that “The British public don’t get a say in choosing the next Tory prime minister and now it seems Liz Truss wants to avoid any public scrutiny whatsoever. People will rightly conclude that she doesn’t want to answer questions about her plans for the country because she simply hasn’t got any serious answers to the big challenges facing our country.”
Truss reportedly has a significant advantage on Sunak in the polls.
