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Wales Online
Wales Online
National
Lucy John

The Liz Truss cheese video that still has people aghast and in stitches in equal measure

On Monday Foreign Secretary Liz Truss beat former chancellor Rishi Sunak to become the new leader of the Conservative Party and the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The 47-year-old Oxford graduate won with 81,326 votes from the Tory membership, to Rishi Sunak’s 60,399.

But despite Ms Truss's success within her own party, the public can't let go of one clumsy and bizarre speech she made eight years ago - about cheese, pork and apples. She became a viral meme in 2014 for the passionate speech about pork markets during the Conservative Party conference.

Read next: 10 things you might not know about the new Prime Minister Liz Truss

Ms Truss, who was then Secretary for the Environment, told members: "In December I'll be in Beijing, opening up new pork markets!" The remark was followed by a wide, self-pleasing grin and a short awkward silence as she coaxed a delayed applause from the audience.

During the speech, she also said: "I want to see us eating more British food here in Britain. At the moment, we import two thirds of all our apples. We import nine tenths of all our pears. We import two thirds of all our cheese. That... is... a... disgrace.

"From the apples that dropped on Isaac Newton's head to the orchards of nursery rhymes, this fruit has always been part of Britain...I want our children to grow up knowing the taste of a British apple, of Cornish sardines, of Herefordshire pears, of Norfolk turkey, of Melton Mowbray pork pies and, of course, of black pudding."

The baffling speech, which attracted an awkward, nervous, half-hearted applause at times, has since become one of the politician's most memorable moments.

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