On 14 October 2022, British tabloid newspaper the Daily Star began a livestream of an iceberg lettuce next to a framed photograph of Liz Truss, who had been appointed prime minister of the United Kingdom the previous month. This act followed an opinion piece in The Economist that compared the expected brevity of Truss's premiership to the shelf life of a head of lettuce, with the October 2022 United Kingdom government crisis occurring weeks into her tenure and leading many political commentators to opine that Truss's resignation was imminent. Truss announced her resignation as prime minister on 20 October 2022 having served just 49 days in office, the shortest tenure in British history, before the lettuce had wilted. Politicians, commentators, media outlets, and advertising campaigns, especially in the United Kingdom, would proceed to use similar comparisons of lettuces for vulnerable politicians and movements.
Background
Liz Truss became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on 6 September 2022, following the July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election, replacing Boris Johnson. The September 2022 United Kingdom mini-budget was published on 23 September by Kwasi Kwarteng, then-Chancellor of the Exchequer, which included tax cuts without matching spending cuts. The mini-budget triggered a heavily negative market reaction, with the exchange rate of the pound sterling collapsing and pension funds coming close to bankruptcy. After just over a month in office, Kwarteng was removed as Chancellor of the Exchequer on 14 October, and Truss reversed most of the economic policies within the mini-budget. British media outlets lambasted Truss's performance and the ensuing political chaos, with many observers believing that her resignation would be imminent. An 11 October column in The Economist titled "Liz Truss has made Britain a riskier bet for bond investors" stated that, after deducting the ten-day mourning period following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Truss had caused economic and political turmoil after just seven days in power, comparing that duration to the "shelf-life of a lettuce". The publication further dubbed her the "Iceberg Lady", in contrast with the "Iron Lady", a nickname for the former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, a political idol of Truss. The lettuce comparison was made by The Economist executive editor Andrew Palmer.
The lettuce Denis Mann, a deputy editor of the British entertainment-focused tabloid newspaper the Daily Star, read the column in The Economist and on 14 October mentioned it to Jon Clark, the newspaper's chief editor, who saw potential in the idea. On the same day, the Daily Star's video team began broadcasting a livestream of an iceberg lettuce next to a framed photograph of Truss, asking the audience whether Truss would be able to outlast the lettuce. The Daily Star hosted the livestream with the title "LIVE: Can Liz Truss outlast a lettuce?" on YouTube. The outlet had been known to make light of contemporary political events, such as Brexit, while generally not adopting a particular political stance. The lettuce had been purchased from a Tesco store for £0.60 (equivalent to £0.68 in 2025) with an expected shelf-life of approximately ten days, and was physically hosted in the home of Edward Keeble, one of the newspaper's video editors. Within the first five hours of the stream, it had received more than 50,000 likes, and attracted more than 350,000 viewers by the following day. On 18 October 2022, the Daily Star further ran a headline titled "Lettuce Liz on Leaf Support" (a pun on "life support"). As the livestream continued, a pair of googly eyes and a blonde wig were put on the lettuce, followed by fake feet and hands and glasses. Occasionally, other items were placed near the lettuce such as stuffed toys, food items, and a mug labelled "Keep Calm and Carry On". Before the lettuce had wilted, on 20 October Truss announced her resignation as prime minister becoming, after only 45 days, the shortest-serving prime minister in British history. At that moment, there were 12,000 viewers on the livestream, which soon shot up to 21,000. The British national anthem "God Save the King" began to play, the portrait of Truss on the table was flipped face down, and a plastic golden crown was placed on top of the lettuce, with the Daily Star declaring the lettuce's "victory" over Truss. The music was later changed to "Celebration" by American band Kool & the Gang, with a Greggs sausage roll and a glass of prosecco also featured. While the lettuce had not rotted entirely, it did show signs of discolouration, with a column in The Atlantic commenting that it was still usable in a salad. By the evening of Truss's resignation, the livestream had received more than 1.7 million viewers. The Daily Star projected an image of the lettuce onto the Palace of Westminster the same evening, followed by a tweet stating that the lettuce "has made it to parliament". In October 2024, the branch of Tesco at which the lettuce was bought, on Forest Road, Walthamstow, was memorialised with a temporary mock blue plaque stating "A LETTUCE purchased here in September 2022 lasted longer than Prime Minister Liz Truss (49 days)". The lettuce video was archived at the British Film Institute in October 2025 for digital preservation.
Reactions
Prior to Truss's resignation The comparison of Truss to the lettuce was received with humour by global media, with The Washington Post writing that Truss had become "the butt of quintessentially British jokes". The lettuce also became subject to betting, with bookmakers who had been previously contacted by Daily Star staff placing Truss's chances of survival past the lettuce as low; on 17 October, a £9 bet at Ladbrokes of the lettuce lasting longer would yield a £13 payout.
Post-resignation
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