Rightwing papers backpedal after helping Liz Truss reach No 10

Outgoing PM won Tory leadership after weeks of supportive stories in the Daily Mail and other outlets

Liz Truss’s hopes of becoming prime minister looked thin in early July. The then-foreign secretary was running a distant third in the Conservative leadership election, with Rishi Sunak and a surging Penny Mordaunt on track to make the final ballot that would be sent to Tory party members.

Supporters of Boris Johnson were not happy. They believed this outcome would pave the way for the coronation of Sunak, the same man who had dethroned Johnson by resigning as chancellor. Interested parties included Paul Dacre, the former Daily Mail editor who had been promised a peerage by Johnson, which he is still hoping to secure.

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The Rock says Daily Star fabricated ‘snowflake’ criticism

Tabloid quoted actor Dwayne Johnson as saying millennials are ‘putting us backwards’

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has claimed the Daily Star fabricated a front-page story in which the film star appeared to criticise millennials as “snowflakes”.

The story, which appeared on Friday’s front page under the headline “The Rock Smacks Down Snowflakes” and was billed as an exclusive, was picked up by news outlets around the world.

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