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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle
Tom Murray

Stephen Colbert skewers Liz Truss’s 45-day stint: ‘That’s not a term in office, that’s a juice cleanse’

CBS

Liz Truss is being ridiculed not just in the UK but also in the US after she became the shortest-serving prime minister in British history.

Truss handed in her resignation to King Charles last week after just 45 days in office, paving the way for Rishi Sunak to become the first UK prime minister of colour.

US talk show host Stephen Colbert took aim at the former Tory leader during his opening monologue on The Late Late Show.

Noting that Sunak is Britain’s first prime minister of South Asian descent and its first Hindu prime minister, Colbert joked: “Britons will be able to run their entire power grid off the turbines connected to Queen Victoria spinning in her grave.”

On Truss’s record-breakingly short term in office, Colbert said: “That’s not a term in office, that’s a juice cleanse.”

He then offered a “compilation” of Truss’s highlights as prime minister, which was a two-second clip of her waving outside 10 Downing Street.

Meanwhile, Trevor Noah joked on The Daily Show that Sunak was just 42 years old, meaning he could serve well into his “42-and-a-halves”.

Following Truss’s resignation on 20 October, Ricky Gervais, Nish Kumar and David Baddiel were among the comedians to pile on the mockery of her term.

Gervais shared a picture of himself making a speech outside No 10, with the caption: “And it wouldn’t even be in the top 10 weirdest news stories of the year.”

The politician’s resignation came after 15 Tory MPs publicly called for her to step down, following a chaotic six weeks that included a disastrous mini-budget, the firing of former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and the resignation of former home secretary Suella Braverman.

Read the live updates as Sunak forms his new cabinet of ministers here

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