Bashing Rishi is a nasty habit that could get Liz hooked

An ex-prime minister with a woke-bashing legacy to protect and a book to publicise, Liz Truss lit up on the floor of the House of Commons as she attempted to stub out her successor’s anti-tobacco bill, says Joe Murphy

Liz Truss says Rishi Sunak’s anti-smoking bill was designed for ‘finger-wagging, nannying control freaks’ (UK Parliament TV)

These days, no platform is too extreme for Liz Truss to climb up on in order to make a stand against “the forces of leftie, deep-state wokery” – or, as she used to call him, Rishi.

Sunak had bravely decided to be elsewhere as an assembly of libertarian Tory MPs gathered to diss the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, whose key measure – that people born in or after 2009 will never be able to legally buy cigarettes – was the flagship of his first (and perhaps last) party conference speech as PM.

Truss was determined to lead the countercharge, so arrived early in a bright scarlet dress that deputy speaker Nigel Evans could not miss, then jumped up and down to catch his eye. There is a convention that former prime ministers are called early in important debates, but does 49 days count? Liz was not taking chances.