Lettuce outlasts Liz Truss in viral British tabloid stream

The lettuce has won.

A 68-cent head of iceberg lettuce outlasted British Prime Minister Liz Truss’s tenure in the top post after the leader’s economic plan plunged the U.K. into chaos.

British tabloid The Daily Star late last week began a livestream of the lettuce and a picture of Truss on a table, to determine who would wither first: the produce or Truss’s time as prime minister.

Truss announced her resignation on Thursday, and the lettuce claimed victory over the conservative politician, who became the shortest-serving prime minister in U.K. history.

Shortly after Truss’s announcement outside 10 Downing Street, the tabloid added disco lighting and a bottle of La Gioiosa Rosea Brut to the livestream shot, also playing songs like “Celebration.”

“Bye, bye @trussliz, congrats to lettuce,” tweeted Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council who previously served as the country’s president and prime minister.

Truss made the announcement on Thursday after a brief tenure largely defined by an economic plan that sent markets into turmoil, fueling a revolt that expanded to Truss’s own Conservative Party.

“I recognize, though, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party,” Truss said on Thursday. “I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party.”

Truss said she will remain as prime minister until her successor is chosen.

Truss was appointed by Queen Elizabeth II on Sept. 6, two days before her death, leading to a temporary hold on politics as Britain mourned the loss of its longest-serving monarch.

After the queen’s funeral, Truss’s government announced a sweeping economic plan that cut income taxes and canceled a planned rise in the country’s corporate tax, among other provisions, amid staggeringly high inflation.

However, she did not release plans on how the tax cut would be paid for, spooking investors, sending bond yields soaring and many pension funds toward a crisis. The turmoil led the Bank of England to begin an emergency bond-buying program to stabilize the market.

Facing criticism, Truss reversed major parts of her plan and fired the chancellor of the exchequer, a position with similar responsibilities to the U.S. Treasury secretary.

But members of Truss’s Conservative Party continued to call on their leader to resign. 

Truss as recently as Wednesday maintained that she would stay in her role as prime minister, telling her colleagues during a Prime Minister’s Questions session, “I am a fighter and not a quitter.”