Chris Mason clashed with Liz Truss over whether the public cared about her “lasting less time than a lettuce”.
The BBC’s political editor said the UK had been left “an international laughing stock” by her 49-day stint as prime minister.
As she battled to survive in No.10, the Daily Star began a stunt to see whether she could outlast a lettuce. She didn’t.
In an interview for a BBC podcast, Mason told Truss: “Your time as prime minister left the UK as an international laughing stock.”
The ex-PM replied: “Well I don’t think that’s true.”
Mason hit back: “All the stuff about lasting less time than a lettuce.”
Truss described that as “pathetic point scoring”.
She added: “This is the kind of thing that obsesses what I describe as the London elite. What do other people think of me? What’s Brtain’s international standing?
“Britain’s international standing will be improved ...”
But Mason interrupted her to say: “It’s not just people in wine bars in London who were interested in whether or not a prime minister lasted longer than a lettuce.
“People could see there was a situation where you were humiliated and so people felt that the country was humiliated.”
Truss replied: “I put forward what were perfectly rational policies that I’d won a leadership election on.”
But Mason told her: “The reality is that it blew up.”
The Daily Star’s gimmick became an internet sensation during Truss’s 49 days as PM.
It was inspired by an article in The Economic, which said: “Ms Truss entered Downing Street on September 6th.
“She blew up her own government with a package of unfunded tax cuts and energy-price guarantees on September 23rd.
“Take away the ten days of mourning after the death of the Queen, and she had seven days in control. That is the shelf-life of a lettuce.”
The Daily Star set up a live action cam on YouTube with a real (60p) lettuce next to a picture of Truss to see which would last longer.
Asked at a conference in Dublin last year whether she could now see “the funny side”, Truss said: “I don’t think it’s funny, I just think it’s puerile.”
However, she had earlier said “the irreverence of the media in Britain is a good thing on the whole”.