Liz Truss is running for office but also wants to hide

Our likely next prime minister is running scared of Nick Robinson and Andrew Neil, says Sean O’Grady

Liz Truss wants to avoid TV interviews in which she might be exposed (PA)

Liz Truss claims to be “ready” to unleash nuclear weapons against an unspecified enemy and thus risk the annihilation of all life in the British Isles, which is perhaps not what we would like her to “deliver”.

A steady, tungsten-carbide-tipped nerve is required in such a scenario and yet Ms Truss is running scared of Nick Robinson and Andrew Neil. She just doesn’t wish to be interviewed by them. It isn’t difficult to see why.

What, for example, would she be able to say about the cost of living crisis? Energy bills? War in Ukraine? The Northern Ireland protocol? The casual insults lobbed at friend and foe alike? The concern is that, despite a decade in cabinet and weeks of opportunity for her and her team to formulate policy, she has said little about what she would actually do in office.