John Oliver isn’t overly thrilled about the U.K.’s new Prime Minister Liz Truss, calling her a number of things on Sunday night’s episode of “Last Week Tonight,” including “Margaret Thatcher if she were high on glue” and “dollar-store British Leslie Knope.” But he does think Truss was gifted a pretty easy first week in office — thanks to Queen Elizabeth II’s death.
Truss was elected earlier this year to succeed Boris Johnson, after he bowed to public pressure and resigned. In a speech on Monday, Truss took a moment to pay tribute to Johnson, saying “You were admired, from Kiev to Carlisle.” Following that statement, Truss was met with a long pause before the room lightly applauded — something Oliver took great joy in making fun of.
“OK, a couple things there. First, the U.K. goes above Carlisle, so that’s basically admission that everyone north of this point f—ing hates Boris, which is not untrue,” Oliver said. “And second, praising Boris Johnson isn’t how you get an audience to love you.”
Oliver then turned to Truss’ actual political beliefs and policies — specifically her support of a windfall tax on oil and gas companies as a means of lowering energy bills in England. The HBO host pulled up a clip of Truss defending her thoughts on it, in which she noted, “I don’t think ‘profit’ is a dirty word. The fact it’s become a dirty word in our society is a massive problem.”
At that, Oliver truly unloaded, offering his potentially hot take for Brits.
“Look, I’m just gonna say this, and you may not like it, but it doesn’t make it any less true: The nicest thing the Queen of England ever did for anyone was die the week that woman became prime minister,” Oliver said. “Because for at least a week, she’s not going to get justifiably destroyed for answers like that.”
Oliver added that, between Truss taking over and King Charles III taking over the throne from his mother, “things are pretty f—ing bleak in the U.K. right now.”
“This f—ing guy is about to be on all the money and morning TV is now basically ‘The Hunger Games,’” he joked, referring to a segment from a British morning show in which hosts spun a wheel to potentially pay for people’s energy bills.
“But don’t worry, Britain: Your future is now securely in the hands of dollar-store British Leslie Knope here,” Oliver joked. “Everything’s going to be fine!”
