Red meat, no lettuce: Nigel Farage and Liz Truss attend private lunch after week of Tory defections

Meal at Mayfair club took place on day Reform UK’s Robert Jenrick criticised former PM’s mini-budget

If it was on the menu, a side helping of lettuce never made it to the table. Over blood-red steak and chips, Nigel Farage and Liz Truss came together on Monday for a discreet lunch at a swish Mayfair club, organised by a climate-denying US thinktank.

Lois Perry, a former leader of the far-right Ukip party who is now Europe director of the Heartland Institute, posted photographs, now deleted, on X of Farage addressing others, including Truss, at the meal.

While Reform UK appears to be keeping the former prime minster at arm’s length publicly, despite welcoming other former Tories, the gathering at Mark’s Club organised by the Heartland Institute raises potentially fresh awkward questions for the party.

“Liz Truss would not be welcome in Reform UK,” the party’s press team replied within seven minutes of being asked by the Guardian if the party would ever allow the UK’s shortest-serving prime minister into its ranks.