Exactly who holds power in Britain right now? In terms of global attention from world leaders, news coverage, and a strong political record of success it may just be a decaying lettuce called Lizzy owned by the Daily Star.
The rapidly greying vegetable, which emerged triumphant from a showdown with Liz Truss over who would last longer, is at a domestic residence in an undisclosed location, according to the newspaper’s deputy editor Jon Livesey. On Thursday night, its image was projected on to the Houses of Parliament, in a sign that the vegetable’s takeover of politics is complete.
“I can’t divulge what exactly but there are further plans for the lettuce,” Livesey said.
As Truss’s leadership began to implode last week, the tabloid’s staff were in an ideas meeting discussing how best to report on her faltering grip of power. Livesey’s fellow deputy Denis Mann had been reading an article in the Economist that compared the prime minister’s tenure to the lifespan of a typical lettuce.
Although the Economist’s articles are not signed by a individual journalist, the executive editor, Andrew Palmer, confirmed he was the individual responsible for the original comparison, noting it was a “strange way for a career to peak”.
The Daily Star editor-in-chief, Jon Clark, seized on the idea and rapidly embraced it.
Livesey explained: “Every single conversation, we’re trying to think how we have fun with it. That’s our place, that’s how we see our job, With the political stuff we’re not anti-Conservative, anti-Labour, we’re just anti-idiot.
“If the people in power are acting in a way that we think is worth poking fun at, then we’ll be all over it. In this instance and various things over the last couple of weeks it’s been an open goal.”
A reporter was dispatched to Tesco to spend 60p on an iceberg lettuce with an expected lifespan of up to 10 days. Bookmakers were phoned up to provide odds on whether the lettuce or Truss would last longer. As part of an effort to embrace a multimedia world, a decision was taken to launch a YouTube livestream of its decay, with the lettuce entrusted to the care of the social video editor, Edward Keeble, who took the salad item home to his flat.
Viewing rapidly grew, with Keeble adding stick-on googly eyes, a wig, drinks and a supply of sausage rolls from Greggs as the lettuce sat on a table next to a picture of the prime minister.
“Credit where it’s due, the person tasked with getting the lettuce and babysitting it has really added on and kept the interest. Everything from the Saturday night disco lights to the ProPlus and the Irn-Bru,” said Livesey.
Although the Daily Star often promoted hard-right groups under its former owner Richard Desmond, it has changed direction since being bought in 2018 by the publisher Reach – which also own the Mirror and the Express. The Daily Star has instead taken a puckish approach to politics. Although print newspaper sales continues to decline, screengrabs of its front pages – which repeatedly targeted Boris Johnson and his former chief of staff Dominic Cummings – regularly go viral.
Its lettuce, in a long tradition of British tabloid stunts, has entranced media outlets around the world who do not have a similar attitude to politics. It has been featured in the Washington Post, the New York Times, and on TV in Spain, Italy, Iceland, Singapore, Indonesia and Argentina. The former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev took time out from his role in the invasion of Ukraine to tweet “congrats to lettuce”.
Livesey said the stunt “really captured the mood and feeling of the nation” and worked because it made everyone “from an academic to a seven-year-old kid at school” laugh.
He also expressed relief that the Daily Star would not need to come up with any more puns on theme of lettuces, with the jokes becoming increasingly limp.
Asked whether the tabloid had engaged in any underhand tactics to prolong the vegetable’s life, Livesey denied engaging in doping. But he said he had learned a lot about how best to make a lettuce live longer over the past week.
“Apparently putting it on ice makes it worse. Room temperature is the way to go.”
