John Oliver mocked Liz Truss, currently in the running to replace Boris Johnson as the UK’s prime minister, on Sunday night’s episode of HBO Max’s Last Week Tonight due to a tweet mourning sex offender Jimmy Savile.
“Truss has a real knack for making bad decisions and then very much sticking to them,” Oliver said. “Exemplified by the fact that this tweet paying tribute to Jimmy Savile, who turned out to be a monstrous pedophile, has still not been deleted 11 years later.”
Truss tweeted on Oct. 29, 2022, following Savile’s death two days before his 85th birthday: “Used to see Jimmy Savile at the Flying Pizza on Street Lane, Roundhay. Always in good spirits. RIP”
Savile was a TV personality who hosted the BBC series Top of the Pops, a British music chart series, and Jim’ll Fix It, a show that saw Savile grant children’s wishes. A year after his death, a documentary looked into allegations of sexual abuse claims made against Savile and anyone who aided in keeping the crimes quiet. Scotland Yard launched its own criminal investigation which confirmed Savile had sexually assaulted staff and patients at 28 hospitals who were between the ages of 5 and 75 across 6 decades.
Oliver also mocked a much-less controversial post where Truss typed her name and nothing else as if “she was searching for her name,” he said with a laugh.
Her rival Rishi Sunak faired only slightly better. The Last Week Tonight host teased Sunak for waving his arms while speaking. He later joked that Sunak should “put some puppets on them.”
Truss currently has a lead against Sunak ahead of the final vote set for Sept. 5. Johnson was forced to resign on July 7 amid scandal.