Joe Lycett has claimed Liz Truss had “a face like a slapped arse” during his much-discussed appearance on Laura Kuenssberg’s politics show on Sunday.
The comic made headlines after pretending to be “incredibly right wing” when he took part in a panel discussion reacting to interviews with Tory leadership candidates Truss and Rishi Sunak on the programme.
Joe – who has long been critical of the government – could be heard from across the studio, shouting: “You smashed it, Liz!”
He also mocked Truss by saying “haters” would see her as “like the backwash of the available MPs” to run for prime minister, but joked that was not his belief.
Appearing on Times Radio on Monday, Joe said he’d been told Truss was unhappy with the stunt.
“Apparently she got up quicker than she’d been told to,” he told presenter Matt Chorley. “My BBC source said that she had – and this is a direct quote – a face like a slapped arse.
“But I’d be very sad if I’d made Liz Truss sad in any way because she is my favourite politician and I’m thrilled that she is going to be the prime minister.”
Joe said he didn’t believe the production team at the BBC was “upset” with his appearance, claiming he’d been told by “Laura and her team” that they were hoping to go in a “slightly different direction”.
“I suppose they maybe didn’t realise that I’m really right wing now. I think maybe they thought I was left wing,” he said.
“I have changed my viewpoints over the year, but then so has Liz Truss. She was a Lib Dem, now she’s a Tory. She was Remain, now she’s [a] Brexiteer. People change their minds and you’ve gotta keep up with that… Somebody said you get eight per cent more right wing with every year you get older. I think I’ve just leap-frogged it.”
Asked for his advice for Truss, who was announced as the new Tory leader on Monday, he said: “Trust your instincts. Channel Thatcher, that can’t go wrong… There is still the BBC, Channel 4 and the NHS which you can still sell off. It would be nice to have ‘Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg with Nivea’. Get it all privatised.”
HuffPost UK has contacted both the BBC and Team Truss for comment, and is awaiting responses.
BBC director general Tim Davie defended Joe’s appearance on the show amid accusations of BBC anti-Tory bias in certain sectors of the media.
“We can debate the merits of that particular booking – I don’t think it displayed BBC bias in the slightest. The audience saw it for what it was,” he told the DCMS committee on Tuesday.
Joe has also made light of the furore his appearance on the show has made.
On Instagram, he shared Monday’s cover of the Daily Mail, which came with the outraged headline of: “Now BBC Comic Mocks Liz Truss.”
“I’ll be off to the framers in the morning,” he joked.