DUBAI: A wilting lettuce has emerged victorious over British Prime Minister Liz Truss in a peculiar competition run by British tabloid the Daily Star.
Last week, the newspaper bought a 60 pence (67 cent) lettuce from grocery chain Tesco and started a competition to see if Truss would remain prime minister within the 10-day shelf-life of the salad vegetable.
It even launched an Instagram filter of a lettuce with googly eyes as part of the bizarre contest.
As it started gaining celebrity status, the lettuce also joined celebrity video messaging website Cameo earlier this week, where users could have a personalized message sent to them by the lettuce for £13 ($14).
The Daily Star said a portion of the money raised would go to its charity of choice, Free The Bears, which rescues bears from dangerous captivity and has sanctuaries in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
As it turns out, the lettuce won, with Truss resigning on Thursday after just 44 days in office.
When the Conservative Party leader confirmed her resignation, a crown was placed on the browning lettuce, and the caption changed from “Day Seven: Will Liz Truss outlast his lettuce?” to “The Lettuce Outlasted Liz Truss.”
“I recognize though, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party. I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King to announce that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party,” Truss said in a statement.
She was not the only one to speak to the press. “Lizzy Lettuce,” as the Daily Star calls the vegetable, also released a statement, saying: “I, Lizzy Lettuce, just wanted to say thank you to the nation for all your support. We shall remain here for as long as we can, and we can’t believe you have ‘lettuce’ into your heart.”
The stunt was inspired by a column in The Economist that said Truss’ likely tenure would be “roughly the shelf-life of a lettuce.”
