Red meat, no lettuce: Nigel Farage and Liz Truss attend private lunch after week of Tory defections

"If it was on the menu, a side helping of lettuce never made it to the table. Over blood-red steak and chips, Nigel Farage and Liz Truss came together on Monday for a discreet lunch at a swish Mayfair club, organised by a climate-denying US thinktank. Lois Perry, a former leader of the far-right Ukip party who is now Europe director of the Heartland Institute, posted photographs, now deleted, on X of Farage addressing others, including Truss, at the meal."

"While Reform UK appears to be keeping the former prime minster at arm's length publicly, despite welcoming other former Tories, the gathering at Mark's Club organised by the Heartland Institute raises potentially fresh awkward questions for the party. Liz Truss would not be welcome in Reform UK, the party's press team replied within seven minutes of being asked by the Guardian if the party would ever allow the UK's shortest-serving prime minister into its ranks."

"The thinktank they were lunching in aid of has made some extreme and incorrect comments on the climate. In the past, it has compared people who believe in global heating to the Unabomber, the US terrorist jailed for killing three people and injuring many others. Those present included David Starkey, the historian dropped by his university and publisher in 2020 over racist remarks, who has become a favoured guest at Reform's annual conference,"

Nigel Farage and Liz Truss attended a discreet lunch in Mayfair organized by the Heartland Institute, a US thinktank known for climate-denying positions. Photographs of Farage addressing attendees, including Truss, were posted on X and later deleted. Reform UK publicly stated that Truss would not be welcome in the party, even as other former Conservatives have been received. The Heartland Institute has previously compared climate believers to the Unabomber. Attendees included controversial figures such as David Starkey and broadcaster Mike Graham. Farage praised Truss's mini-budget as the best Conservative budget since 1986, and political alignments remain under scrutiny.

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