Liz Truss has stormed off stage after a banner featuring a lettuce and the words “I crashed the economy” unfurled behind her at an event.

The former prime minister was taking questions from an audience in Beccles, Suffolk, as part of her book tour on Tuesday evening when campaign group Led By Donkeys carried out the stunt.

She was saying how she thought Donald Trump would probably win the US election as “the average American is not doing well” when a banner came down from the ceiling behind her.

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The vegetable pictured was a reference to a lettuce the Daily Star livestreamed, to see if it wilted before her premiership in 2022 ended.

After Ms Truss resigned just 49 days into the job, the newspaper declared the lettuce victorious.

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The banner’s economy-related tagline was a reference to her agenda of tax cuts and spending that plunged the UK economy into crisis.

Ms Truss, who lost her South West Suffolk seat in the July election, initially did not notice the banner.

However, when she was alerted to it and a few people started laughing, she looked unimpressed and said: “That’s not funny.”

She then gathered up her notes, took her microphone off and walked off the stage.

There was a small smattering of applause as she left.

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Led By Donkeys claimed credit for the stunt, as the group posted a video of it to social media.

It said: “Liz Truss is on a pro-Trump speaking tour. So we dropped a strategically positioned remote controlled lettuce banner.”

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Earlier this year, the group used a remote controlled banner with a picture of the Russian president on to disrupt a speech by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

It read: “I heart Putin.”

Ms Truss and her team said they would not be commenting on the stunt.

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