A bizarre Fringe hour with Liz Truss on Donald Trump, blame and why she is living in a 'parallel universe'

Audience members were left gasping in disbelief in a question-and-answer session littered with a series of extraordinary remarks from the former prime minister.

Ms Truss said there was a place for Nigel Farage in the Conservative Party, and warned the party was at risk of collapse and of being replaced by Reform UK if it did not stop shifting to the left.

She also stressed she “desperately” wanted to see Donald Trump re-elected as the next US president, and said it was a “shame” former home secretary Suella Braverman was not standing to be the next Conservative leader.

Ms Truss said while she does not agree with everything Mr Farage says, “he is right about the need for change”.

When asked if she can see Mr Farage in the Conservative Party in the future, the former PM said: “Yes - I want to see a Conservative Party at the next election with a clear plan to change the country.

“I don’t care who is in it, I care about whether they have the policies.”

The open admiration for other ‘marmite’ politicians did not stop there though. Audience members audibly groaned as Ms Truss heaped admiration and praise onto Mr Trump, Argentinian Prime Minister Javier Milei and ousted Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg.

One person who clearly is not in her good books is former prime minister Rishi Sunak - the man she conquered in the original leadership race to succeed Boris Johnson, only to be ultimately replaced by him following a whirlwind 49 days in office, making her the shortest serving British prime minister in history.

But it was just as well Mr Sunak was not in the audience at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) as Ms Truss admitted she “didn’t get on with” and has not spoken to him since the election.

And while not explicitly blaming the incumbent Tory leader for the “massive drubbing” at the polls, where Ms Truss ultimately lost her seat, she was keen to point out how difficult her campaign was on the doorsteps. The reason? A “dissonance” between her and Mr Sunak.

The 'blame game' emerged as a theme of the Fringe appearance.

Ms Truss repeatedly claimed during her appearance that she was not to blame for anything that had gone wrong in Britain in recent years. And pressed on her disastrous mini-budget - a package of £45 billion in ‘unfunded’ tax cuts attributed to driving up gas prices, inflation and interest rates - the former foreign secretary blamed the Bank of England for the fall-out, saying it had made a “major error” before trying to blame her for it.

She also blamed Mr Sunak for the general election result, suggesting “I would have run a better campaign”.

And of her general poor, albeit brief, performance as prime minister, Ms Truss pointed the finger of blame at the UK civil service, suggesting she did not feel supported during her short time as PM.

When it came to the failure of the Rwanda immigration policy, Ms Truss went as far back as blaming the policies introduced by former Labour prime minister Tony Blair. The Fringe audience was told the Rwanda policy had been a “step in the right direction” and newly-elected Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was wrong to cancel it.

The discussion on the Rwanda policy did spur one round of applause though - but not for anything Ms Truss said. Instead, it was when presenter Matthew Stadlen suggested listeners were uncomfortable with the idea of sending vulnerable people to an undemocratic country.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ms Truss suggested everything was moving to the left, including the UK government, the country’s various institutions and the rather vague concept of “the west” - cue a chance for her to plug her book ‘Ten Years to Save the West’. In fact, when one audience member heckled Ms Truss by asking why she sacked Kwasi Kwarteng as her chancellor, she retorted with “read my book”.

Her mere 49 days in Number 10 clearly had not dampened her fighting spirit, however, as she knocked back several boos, hecklers and even took on one audience member directly.

Not that the audience in the Scottish capital thanked her for it. During a discussion about the economy and her disastrous mini-budget, one gentleman shouted out to Ms Truss “just apologise”. However, not one to be shouted down, Ms Truss said it was an “inane comment” from someone “who doesn’t understand or care about what’s going on”, and cared more about “trading political insults”.

She then said heckles like this were “why the country is in the mess we are in”.

Mr Stadlen pointed out that asking for an apology was not the same as an insult. But the former prime minister was quick to respond and disagree, saying: “I take it as an insult.”

Perhaps another audience member inadvertently mocked her as well. Ms Truss famously was trounced by a lettuce when she resigned as prime minister and one audience member was spotted munching on a bag of the leafy vegetable. She probably never wants to see lettuce again.

Despite the less-than-friendly reception from the audience, Ms Truss embraced her celebrity status after the hour-long session, posing for photos with fans outside the venue. At least some in the audience appeared to appreciate her visit to the Fringe.