A Conservative MP has blamed a “long few days” for confusing prime minister Liz Truss leader with one of her predecessors, Theresa May.
Lee Anderson, Conservative MP for Ashfield, was being interviewed following the Truss speech to party conference in Birmingham.
He first hit out at the “gutter press” for its negative portrayal of the event, which was marred by a u-turn on scrapping the 45p top rate of tax and civil war within the Tory party.
He then praised Truss for a “pretty good” address, and how she “gets better and better every time I see her”.
Anderson added: “I think we’ve made the right decision in the end to vote for her.”
Asked whether Truss did enough to win over any floating voters in his constituency, Anderson said he “would hope so” but acknowledged that “the red wall is a red wall for a reason”.
He went on: “We had Brexit, we had Boris, we had Corbyn three years ago and now we’ve got Theresa May it’s a different ball game altogether.”
When interviewer Harry Horton of ITV remind him that the prime minister was in fact now Truss, Anderson conceded: “My mistake, it’s been a long few days.”
Earlier in the week, Anderson insisted the government’s “change of direction” on scrapping the 45p tax rate wasn’t a “u-turn”.
He also suggested the UK will only have a full economic crisis when Wetherspoons pubs are empty.
Anderson has previously courted controversy for saying that people use food banks because they can’t “cook or budget”.
