Liz Truss ‘completely horrified’ by Love Island

Truss was recently asked if she believed the ITV2 show needed ‘reining in’

PM-hopeful Liz Truss has said she was “completely horrified” by Love Island and could only bear to watch it for “10 minutes”.

Truss and former chancellor Rishi Sunak – both vying for the keys to No 10 Downing Street following Boris Johnson’s resignation as Tory leader – went head-to-head in Leeds on Thursday (28 July) at the first of 12 scheduled Conservative Party hustings.

During the event, Truss was asked if she believed the ITV2 show needed “reining in” due to complaints of “misogynistic bullying.”

Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, had revealed that a total of 3,617 complaints were made about the popular dating competiton in a single week.

The episode which was aired on 17 July garnered 2,481 of these complaints – an episode in which the cast watched clips of their fellow contestants in potentially compromising situations.

Responding to the question about whether Love Island needs regulating during the Leeds hustings, Truss said: “All I can say is that I watched it for 10 minutes with my teenage daughter and I was completely horrified and I turned it off.”

When asked whether her daughter was “equally horrified”, Truss responded: “Unfortunately not.”

During the 17 July episode, which prompted a slew of viewer complaints, Love Island contestant Luca Bish was seen to be “egging on” other boys to stray from their partners during Casa Amor.

As well as this, he claimed that there was flirty interaction between his partner Gemma Owen and Billy Brown in some of the videos, saying that Gemma had made him “look like an absolute f*****g w****r” and told other male contestants: “I ain’t going f*****g near that bird.”

Other significant complaints were made in relation to Sunday’s episode of Love Island: Aftersun, in which former contestant Jacques appeared after leaving the villa earlier in the week.

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As a result of these episodes, Love Island has been more hotly debated than ever in recent days. Women’s Aid confirmed on 19 July that they were in talks with producers on the ITV2 show to address “controlling and misogynistic” behaviour on display.