John Oliver took aim at Tory leadership candidates Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak on the latest episode of Last Week Tonight.
In the episode which aired on Sunday (July 31), Oliver tackled the candidates looking to replace Boris Johnson as Prime Minister – highlighting an undeleted tweet by Truss which mourns the death of paedophile Jimmy Savile.
“Truss has a real knack for making bad decisions and then very much sticking to them,” Oliver said on the show. “Exemplified by the fact that this tweet paying tribute to Jimmy Savile who turned out to be a monstrous paedophile has still not been deleted 11 years later.”
Truss’s tweet, posted on October 29, 2011, reads: “Used to see Jimmy Savile at the Flying Pizza on Street Lane, Roundhay. Always in good spirits. RIP.”
Used to see Jimmy Savile at the Flying Pizza on Street Lane, Roundhay. Always in good spirits. RIP
— Liz for Leader (@trussliz) October 29, 2011
Sunak, meanwhile, was mocked over his hand gestures while speaking. “What is it about rich people and hand movements? Sunak looks like he studied at the [Mark] Zuckerberg school of passing for a human,” Oliver said.
Savile’s history of abuse, which emerged following his death in 2011, is set to be covered in four-part BBC drama The Reckoning released later this year.
Steve Coogan, who plays the disgraced presenter in the series, defended the show’s subject matter back in April. “I think that’s because Jimmy Savile played a trick on the entire nation so there’s a real feeling of antagonism about it.
“But you need to look at someone like that to understand how they’re able to operate and to prevent it happening again. If you sweep it under the carpet and don’t talk about it anymore, then those people are destined to come back.”
