The rapidly graying vegetable, which emerged victorious from a showdown with Liz Truss over who would last the longest, is in a residence at an undisclosed location, according to the paper’s deputy editor Jon Livesey. On Thursday night, his image was shown in Parliament, in a sign that the vegetable’s takeover of politics is complete. “I can’t reveal what exactly, but there are further plans for lettuce,” Livesey said. As Tras’s leadership began to crumble last week, the tabloid’s staff was in a brainstorming session discussing how best to report on her faltering authority. Livesey’s fellow deputy, Denis Mann, was reading an article in the Economist which compared the prime minister’s tenure to the lifespan of a typical lettuce. Although the Economist articles are not signed off by an individual journalist, executive editor Andrew Palmer confirmed that he was the person responsible for the original comparison, noting that it was a “strange way to cap a career”. Daily Star editor Jon Clark grabbed the idea and quickly embraced it. Livesey explained: “Every conversation we try to think about how we have fun with her. This is our place, that’s how we see our work, With political stuff we’re not anti-conservative, anti-Labour, we’re just anti-stupid. “If people in power are acting in a way that we think is worth making fun of, then we’ll get over it. In this instance and in various things over the last couple of weeks, it was an open goal.” A reporter was sent to Tesco to spend 60p on an iceberg lettuce with an expected shelf life of up to 10 days. Bettors were asked to place odds on whether the lettuce or the Truss would last longer. As part of an effort to embrace a multimedia world, the decision was made to start a YouTube livestream of its decline, with the lettuce being put in the care of social video editor Edward Keeble, who took the salad to his apartment. The sight quickly grew, with Keeble adding glued eyes, a wig, drinks and a supply of sausages from Greggs, as the lettuce sat on a table next to a picture of the Prime Minister. “Credit where it’s due, the person tasked with getting the lettuce and looking after it has really added and kept the interest going. Everything from Saturday night disco lights to ProPlus and Irn-Bru,” Livesey said. Although the Daily Star often promoted far-right groups under its former owner Richard Desmond, it has changed direction since it was bought in 2018 by publisher Reach – which also owns the Mirror and Express. Instead, the Daily Star has taken a tough approach to politics. Although print sales continue to decline, images from its front pages – which have repeatedly targeted Boris Johnson and his former chief of staff Dominic Cummings – regularly go viral. His stunt, in a long tradition of British tabloid stunts, has charmed media around the world that have no similar attitude to politics. He has been featured in the Washington Post, the New York Times, and on television in Spain, Italy, Iceland, Singapore, Indonesia, and Argentina. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev took time out from his role in invading Ukraine to tweet “congratulations to the lettuce.” Livesey said the stunt “really captured the mood and emotion of the nation” and worked because it made everyone “from an academic to a seven-year-old at school” laugh. He also expressed relief that the Daily Star won’t have to come up with any more lettuce-themed puns, with the jokes becoming increasingly tepid. Asked if the tabloid had done any underhand tactics to extend the vegetable’s life, Livesey denied she was involved in doping. But he said he had learned a lot about how to make a lettuce live longer in the past week. “Obviously putting it on ice makes it worse. Room temperature is the best way.”