- Tuesday, March 11, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Liz Truss, the British prime ministerial candidate who is leading the race against fellow Conservative member Rishi Sunak, on Tuesday (30) withdrew from an interview with BBC because she could “no longer spare the time”. She was accused of “running scared” of scrutiny after she called off the one-on-one talks, The Guardian reported.
The 47-year-old foreign secretary had earlier in August agreed to a primetime interview with veteran political journalist Nick Robinson on BBC One, something which has already been done by Sunak.
However, a BBC spokesperson confirmed that the interview stood cancelled.
“Ms Truss’s team say she can no longer spare the time to appear on Our Next Prime Minister,” they said. “We regret that it has not been possible to do an in-depth interview with both candidates despite having reached agreement to do so.”
Robinson said in a tweet that while he was pleased that Truss had agreed to hold the interview, he was “disappointed and frustrated it’s been cancelled”.
Was pleased to secure an in-depth interview with @trussliz on BBC1. I am disappointed & frustrated it’s been cancelled https://t.co/3X3tmwDP4t
— Nick Robinson (@bbcnickrobinson) August 29, 2022
The Sunak camp taunted Truss over this with one source in the former’s campaign saying that the foreign secretary had appeared for just two broadcast interviews of any form in this campaign season as against Sunak’s nine, including three spots on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Wendy Chamberlain, the Liberal Democrats’ chief whip, targeted Truss saying, “Liz Truss is running scared of the media and proper public scrutiny. How can she lead our country through an economic crisis when she can’t even cope with a basic media interview?
“She wants to follow in Margaret Thatcher’s footsteps but she’s fallen at the first hurdle. She’s fighting for the highest office by answering the lowest number of difficult questions,” The Guardian reported.
Labour also slammed Truss. Conor McGinn, the shadow minister without portfolio, said, “The British public don’t get a say in choosing the next Tory prime minister and now it seems Liz Truss wants to avoid any public scrutiny whatsoever.
“People will rightly conclude that she doesn’t want to answer questions about her plans for the country because she simply hasn’t got any serious answers to the big challenges facing our country.”
Truss’s tactic of avoiding media grilling mirrored a similar act of outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson who had declined a BBC interview with Andrew Neil before the Conservative Party’s victory in December 2019 elections.
