Footage from Thursday shows the Foreign Secretary during an appearance on Sky News to discuss the Government’s response to the Ukraine-Russia crisis. Liz Truss was live on air to discuss how ministers are considering using emergency legislation to push through sanctions on Russian oligarchs linked to President Putin.
However, just after the Minister for Women and Equality started speaking about the topic, she was interrupted.
Footage from Sky News shows Ms Truss said: “The reason I’m here in Vilnius today is to show…”
However, the MP then stopped in her tracks, before saying: “Sorry can we start again” following a disturbance in the background of the shot.
Liz Truss can be seen looking at the camera with a straight expression as a man with a backpack walks behind her, and through the cameraman’s shot.
The MP looks disgruntled by the interruption before nodding at the camera in order to resume where she left off.
However, remainers have mocked the Foreign Secretary over the footage
In response to the footage, an account called “UK is with EU” mocked the MP, sharing a video of the interruption, captioned with “Walks out when Truss starts to speak”.
Another issued a swipe at Ms Truss, claiming her press conference was a form of “vain self-promotion”.
The user wrote: “I would walk out too, there is no benefit or requirement for her to be there, she adds no value, an irrelevance.
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“This is absolutely not the time for vain self-promotion.”
A third said: “I don’t know who he is or whether or not he’s important but he’s obviously not interested in anything she’s got to say, it’s not that important to him.
“Think about that for a moment, the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom in a time of international danger and he’s not bothered”.
While a fourth bitterly brought up Brexit, claiming that the UK is “an irrelevance” after leaving the bloc, and is left out of formulating a response to the invasion of Ukraine alongside other EU member states.
The user wrote: “If not for Brexit, Truss and Johnson would be in Brussels negotiating with the other EU countries.
“As it is the UK is left out. Completely. An irrelevance. A cautionary tale.”
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It comes as Brussels has sanctioned more than 25 Russians while Britain has so far named just 11 individuals with links to Putin.
Liz Truss was in Lithuania on Thursday as pressure mounts on the British Government to increase sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s associates.
While in Lithuania, the MP met with Baltic foreign ministers from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
The MP hopes to reduce the evidence threshold for proving an individual’s links to the Kremlin.
She also hopes to bring in measures that will make it easier to designate groups of individuals more quickly, according to government officials.
The Government is facing calls to impose sanctions against Putin’s associates as the US and EU target a greater number of individuals.
On Monday, Liz Truss had said the Government was working through a “hit list” of oligarchs and other figures with links to Putin, with a view to imposing sanctions on them.
On Thursday, it was announced that the UK had sanctioned Igor Shuvalov, Russia’s former deputy prime minister, and Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, both of whom have been sanctioned by the EU.
The Government announced that a full asset freeze and travel ban has been imposed against them, as two of Russia’s leading oligarchs with significant interests in the UK and close links to the Kremlin.
The Foreign Secretary said of the move: “Our message to Putin and his allies has been clear from day one – invading Ukraine would have serious and crippling economic consequences.
“Sanctioning Usmanov and Shuvalov sends a clear message that we will hit oligarchs and individuals closely associated with the Putin regime and his barbarous war.
“We won’t stop here. Our aim is to cripple the Russian economy and starve Putin’s war machine.”
