Liz Truss is going viral yet again – but this time, it’s not because of her bizarre takes on how her premiership ended, her support for Donald Trump or her criticism of Kamala Harris’s time in the White House.
This eye-catching moment happened when ITV sent broadcaster Matt Chapman to cover Goodwood Racecourse in West Sussex.
While live on air, the presenter selected some attendees – presumably at random – to speak to him about their predictions for who would win the races.
This time, he approached a man and a woman, who just happened to be Liz Truss and her companion.
As her companion answered the reporter’s questions, Truss looked around, slightly bewildered but still smiling.
But, after a 20-second exchange, the camera team move on – without speaking to the former PM at all.
Commentator Richard Hoiles paused for a second, then said: “Liz Truss wasn’t it?”
After another pause, he added: “It was, my eyes are not deceiving me – the markets could crash any minute, couldn’t it?”
Truss’s premiership is of course most memorable for crashing the markets with her disastrous mini-Budget and £45bn of unfunded tax cuts.
This is incredible in several ways, not least of which that I don't think there is another former PM that could go entirely unrecognised through an interview.
But also – mainly – because it results in the BEST IMPROVISED PUT DOWN/SEGUE EVER on television. ~SS pic.twitter.com/qsdLzRAuCa
— Best for Britain (@BestForBritain) August 2, 2024
The moment sparked quite the reaction on social media.
Love it.@MCYeeehaaa in the paddock at Goodwood races and fails to recognise a former Prime Minister beside the owner he is interviewing.
That’s how much Liz Truss is remembered!
pic.twitter.com/XwRlLgRQoK— John O’Brennan (@JohnOBrennan2) August 2, 2024
Oh my god. Oh my god. He didn’t even recognise her. A former Prime Minister of his country. A very recent one.
The commentary at the end too! Greatest clip yet.
I am on the floor. I am not sure I will recover.
😂 😂 😂 pic.twitter.com/76D1Kq6YjI
— Brendan May (@bmay) August 2, 2024
Unfortunately for Truss, who holds the record as the shortest-serving PM in the UK’s history, this is not the first time she has not been recognised outside of Westminster.
Last month, when she went to the Republican National Convention in the US, few attendees recognised her name at all when asked by a journalist.
And, even when she was PM, Australian broadcasters failed to identify her at the Queen’s funeral while talking through all of the guests arriving to the major international event.