Rishi Sunak asked about Liz Truss’ claim the ‘deep state’ ended her premiership

The prime minister appeared to laugh off Liz Truss’ claim the “deep state” ended her ill-fated premiership, when his predecessor’s comments were raised to him on Tuesday.

Facing a grilling at the House of Commons’ liaison committee, Rishi Sunak said: “I think that’s probably a question for her, rather than me”.

It came after Conservative MP William Wragg, who is also chair of the public administration and constitutional affairs select committee, questioned the PM as to the existence of a “deep state”.

Wragg also asked the prime minister if he was a member of the deep state, to which Sunak responded: “I probably wouldn’t tell you if I was!”

In February, Liz Truss wrote an article for Fox News, in which she claimed that forces on the left do not “just fight at the ballot box and seek a mandate for their agenda when it is election time; their agents are only too active in public and private institutions and what we have come to know as the administrative state and the deep state.”

PMQs verdict: Keir Starmer takes on Farage and Truss, the conservative cranks