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Liz Truss demanded bottles of Sauvignon Blanc, biography reveals
A new biography of Britain’s shortest-serving Prime Minister has revealed Liz Truss’ rider, including her white wine request for overnight trips.
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An extract from Out of the Blue: the Inside Story of the Unexpected Rise and Rapid Fall of Liz Truss by James Heale and Harry Cole reveals the rather specific requests Truss made for her trips as International Trade Secretary and, later, Foreign Secretary.
Top of the list is a demand for double espresso (served in a a flat white-sized takeout cup), and it had to be either from independent producers, or Pret in the UK. Former aide Kirsty Buchanan remarked: “She drinks about 42,000 espressos a day or she used to when I worked for her … she would sit there with a massive meatball sub or eat three croissants for breakfast. She would carb up; frankly no woman in her forties should be eating that much and getting away with it.”
On the topic of carbs, Truss is said to have demanded freshly-prepared sandwiches, nothing pre-made, and to have had either bagels or sushi for lunch. Under no circumstances was mayonnaise to make it onto or into any of her food.
To unwind in the evenings, Truss also requested “a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc provided in the fridge of any overnight accommodation”.
While Truss was quite specific about where her coffee came from, she does not appear to have narrowed down a particular region or style of Sauvignon Blanc. One of her first trips as International Trade Secretary was to Wellington, New Zealand. Given the city’s proximity to Martinborough, there certainly would not have been a shortage of great wines.
However, one travelling official suggested that Truss’ fondness for caffeine meant that the trip got off to a rocky start: “She’d had so much coffee and just wasn’t interested in meeting the ambassador.”
To read how the UK’s wine industry reacted at the start of Truss’ ill-fated tenure as Prime Minister, click here.