Which will last the longest – British PM Liz Truss’ time in office, or a head of lettuce?
That’s the cheeky question being posed by a British tabloid, as speculation over the new PM’s leadership continues to mount.
The Daily Star has live-streamed the decline of a head of unrefrigerated lettuce on YouTube for four days, suggesting Ms Truss’ premiership might be the first to expire.
The gag began when the publication posted a Twitter poll on Saturday asking its readers: “Will Liz Truss still be PM within the 10-day shelf life of our lettuce?”
A whopping 96.8 per cent of votes were in favour of the grocery staple, with only 3.2 per cent for ‘Team Truss’.
The Daily Star put its proposition to a further test hours later, kicking off a YouTube live stream starring a $1.10 Tesco lettuce, alongside a clock and a framed photo of the British PM.
The idea appears to have stemmed from a brutal editorial from the Economist magazine, which described the embattled Ms Truss as having “the shelf-life of a lettuce”.
Tweet from @dailystar
The live-stream, which is still up and running, periodically flashes banners of text, including “Breaking: Liz Truss has not resigned (yet)”.
The lettuce even has a wardrobe department of its own, the tabloid dressing it up in a blonde wig, a smiling mouth, and even a sleeping mask at nighttime.
The Daily Star’s prop team has also been hard at work, the lettuce kept company by cheese and crackers, pork scratchings and cups of tea.
The fun doesn’t stop there. The live stream has also featured disco lights, relaxing music and, most bizarrely, whale sounds.
Thanks to the live stream’s enormous popularity online, The Daily Star has even made a corresponding Instagram filter, with viewers at home able to make their very own lettuce faces.
The lettuce has visibly begun to wilt after sitting unrefrigerated for four days. But many social media users and commentators say the odds are still in its favour.
Ms Truss’ leadership is already in trouble, just 40 days after she was sworn in by the late Queen – in one of the monarch’s last public acts before she died.
News broke on Friday that Ms Truss had asked her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, to step down – making him the shortest-serving chancellor since 1970.
He was replaced by Jeremy Hunt in an attempt to rescue Ms Truss’ leadership as confidence in her ability to run the country has drained away within both her own Conservative Party and international financial markets.
Controversy really stepped up with Mr Kwarteng and Ms Truss’ controversial mini-budget, which included a string of unfunded tax cuts without publishing a set of independent economic forecasts.
Sunday’s newspapers were rife with stories of plans to replace the PM.
Several Conservative MPs have also called for her resignation.
“In recent weeks, I have watched as the Government has undermined Britain’s economic credibility & fractured our party irreparably. Enough is enough,” MP Jamie Wallis wrote on Twitter, publishing a letter to Ms Truss asking her to resign.
To add fuel to the fire, Ms Truss has also said she will back away from a decision to raise corporation tax, subsequently ditching one a key campaign promise.
However, she continues to ignore calls to resign, telling a media briefing she is “absolutely determined to see through what I have promised”.
