Nigella Lawson says Liz Truss should lug 'Jenga' lectern 'everywhere she goes'

21 February 2023 , 11:37

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Nigella Lawson said Liz Truss should take her £4,000 lectern with her (Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images)

Nigella Lawson has said Liz Truss should be made to carry her cursed Jenga lectern “everywhere she goes, forever”.

The Mirror revealed the £4,000 wooden monstrosity has been left abandoned in No10 as officials have failed to find it a new home.

The government had hoped the costly relic from her short-lived time in office would be used by another Whitehall department or maybe an embassy abroad.

But it is still languishing in Downing Street as it appears there have been no takers for the higgledy-piggledy pile of bricks that brings back bad memories of her catastrophic premiership.

Celebrity chef Ms Lawson waded into the row last night as she posted on Twitter: “She should be made to carry it with her everywhere she goes, forever.”

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The lectern resembling a pile of Jenga bricks was used during Liz Truss's seven weeks in No10 (Getty Images)

The lectern was specially made for her at a cost of £4,175 to taxpayers, but she only lasted 49 days as Prime Minister after she tanked the economy.

In response to a freedom of information request, the Cabinet Office said the practice has been that lecterns used by PMs are “repurposed including in other Government buildings” when they leave office, but it said the one made for Ms Truss remained “on site” in No10.

The lectern was used by Miss Truss when she addressed the nation following the death of the Queen.

She also stood behind it at an awkward press conference after she sacked Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor in a desperate bid to save her premiership and as she announced her resignation in Downing Street.

Liz Truss used her Jenga-style lectern at events including an awkward press conference after she sacked Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor (Carlos Jasso/POOL/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner has said the “Jenga lectern now serves as a permanent reminder that the Conservative should never again be trusted with Britain’s finances”.

During her seven weeks in power, Miss Truss sent the pound tumbling and mortgage rates soaring after she unveiled her catastrophic mini-Budget, which was packed with gigantic tax cuts for the super-rich.

She had to U-turn on nearly all her plans and sacked Mr Kwarteng, but was still forced out by Tory MPs. She is the shortest-serving PM in British history.

Miss Truss has pledged to stay on as a backbench Tory MP and is already becoming a thorn in Mr Sunak’s side.

Unlike other Tory PMs, Mr Sunak did not have a personalised lectern made for him as there was no time to design one in the rapid leadership contest that followed Miss Truss’s resignation.

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