“[Liz Truss], why don’t you want to answer any questions?”@vicderbyshire presses former PM Liz Truss on whether she bears any responsibility for claims that “the country is in decline.”#Newsnightpic.twitter.com/YAEt5QcVSs
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) September 30, 2024
Liz Truss evaded Victoria Derbyshire’s persistent line of questioning last night by just ignoring her and walking straight into the women’s toilets.
The former prime minister caused a stir on Monday when she spoke at a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference, and claimed the Tories would have secured more votes at the last general election if she had still been party leader.
Shortly after Truss was questioned on stage by journalist Tim Stanley, the BBC Newsnight team, led by interviewer Derbyshire, tracked her down to question her about such claims.
She asked: “Liz Truss you said you’d be a better prime minister, than Rishi Sunak, you could have done better than him in this election. Why do you say that?”
Truss just glanced at them but continued walking – while smiling mysteriously.
Derbyshire, following the former PM, asked: “Why don’t you want to answer any questions?”
One of her team shouted: “She’s just done a 45-minute interview!”
“Sure sure sure,” Derbyshire said, as she continued behind Truss – only for the former MP of South West Norfolk to dart into the women’s toilets.
Derbyshire added: “But – oh fair enough, we’re not going in the ladies’ loo.”
Truss is not the first senior Tory to walk swiftly away from the press. Then-PM Boris Johnson famously hid in a fridge to avoid speaking to ITV’s Good Morning Britain in December 2019.
Still, Derbyshire did not give up.
She tracked Truss down again sometime later as the former PM walked around the conference, and asked: “Liz Truss, you said the country is in decline.
“Is that partly your responsibility?”
Truss just continued walking, saying nothing.
Derbyshire asked: “Is there a battle to save Britain because of your economic incompetence?”
Silence.
“Do you still see a future for yourself in Conservative politics?” The journalist said.“You said it feels like the country is in decline, I wonder how much you contributed to that?
“Was there anything that went wrong with your mini-Budget, that you would take responsibility for?”
But Truss refused to be drawn at all.
The one-way conversation came just hours after Truss slammed the media during her talk at the conference, saying press criticism against her was “vague” and that journalists needed to “analyse” the UK’s problems more.
The bizarre episode was almost identical to the time she ignored nine questions from a BBC reporter in central London.
The ex-PM also refused to engage with the press in the summer, when she went to the States to show her support for Republican candidate Donald Trump.
