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John Oliver skewers Liz Truss for resurfaced tweet mourning death of Jimmy Savile

‘Truss has a real knack for making bad decisions and then very much sticking to them,’ Oliver said

Tom Murray
Monday 01 August 2022 05:31 EDT
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Truss and Sunak eviscerate Tory legacy all by themselves

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John Oliver took aim at the Tory leadership candidates on Last Week Tonight on Sunday (31 July).

The late-night host particularly mocked Liz Truss over an undeleted tweet mourning the death of prolific celebrity paedophile Jimmy Savile.

“Truss has a real knack for making bad decisions and then very much sticking to them,” Oliver said during a segment on his show, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

“Exemplified by the fact that this tweet paying tribute to Jimmy Savile, who turned out to be a monstrous paedophile, has still not been deleted 11 years later.”

On 29 October 2011, Truss tweeted: “Used to see Jimmy Savile at the Flying Pizza on Street Lane, Roundhay. Always in good spirits. RIP.”

The tweet has still not been deleted at the time of writing.

The Independent has contacted Truss for comment.

Liz Truss Jimmy Savile tweet
Liz Truss Jimmy Savile tweet (Twitter)

After his death in 2011, hundreds of survivors came forward with stories of abuse by Jim’ll Fix It host Savile, who used his work at the BBC and at hospitals, prisons and charities to conceal his paedophilia.

Oliver also mocked Truss’ opponent, former finance minister Rishi Sunak, for waving his arms around while he talks: “He looks like he studied at the [Mark] Zuckerburg school for passing for a human.”

The next six weeks will see Sunak and Truss battle it out to become the next UK prime minister following Boris Johnson’s resignation. Follow live updates on the Tory leadership race here.

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