Liz Truss' former aide reveals bizarre tactic they used to keep her away from interviews

Liz Truss, the outgoing UK PM, is media-shy to the point of having aides concoct bizarre lies to keep her away from interviews.

The bizarre reasons Liz Truss aides used to keep her away from media interviews
© Bloomberg / Contributeur
The bizarre reasons Liz Truss aides used to keep her away from media interviews

Kirsty Buchanan, a former Liz Truss aide, has recently opened up about the time spent working for her when she was the justice secretarybetween 2016 and 2017.

Discover our latest podcast

Running out of reasons

Kirsty Buchanan in an interview for the Independent said aides had run out of reasons used for keeping the then justice secretary Liz Truss out of interviews, especially from Questions Time the flagship BBC politics programme.

The reasons used were bizarre, drastic claims like a family member had died, so an appearance would not be possible because the madam secretary would have to attend the funeral of a family member.

'She didn’t like the media, so we used to spend quite a lot of time making up excuses and killing off minor members of her family so she didn’t have to go on QuestionTime.'

Despite the claims by Buchanan, the current acting PM, who was a Member of Parliament since 2010, has appeared on Questions Time a total of nine timesbetween 2012 and 2019, Huffington Post reports.

Public speaking uneasiness

According to The Independent, during the Tory leadership campaign, Liz Truss admitted that she is not a polished speaker.

thumbnail
The bizarre reasons Liz Truss aides used to keep her away from media interviews Bloomberg / Contributeur

Moreover, recent appearances and comments of Liz Truss, suggest the acting PM is also media shy and does not fare well when pressed with questions during an interview.

Such was the case during the last week when she delivered a press briefing about the country’s economic policy, which created turmoil in the markets and sent the British Pound into free fall. Reportedly, Truss dashed out of the sessionafter only four questions which took about ‘seven minutes of scrutiny’, Newsweek reports.

Sources used:

-Independent: ‘Liz Truss aides ‘pretended her relatives had died’ to get her out of going on TV’

-HuffingtonPost: ‘Liz Truss' Aides 'Pretended Family Members Had Died' To Avoid BBC Question Time’

Read more:

Liz Truss becomes shortest-serving PM in the UK: Here's what will happen now that she's resigned

Liz Truss being called to resign: What options does the Prime Minister have?

Liz Truss: Who is Hugh O'Leary, the mysterious husband of Britain's new Prime Minster

Liz Truss' net worth is among the top 10 UK politicians Liz Truss' net worth is among the top 10 UK politicians