Liz Truss is set to be an even more disastrous Prime Minister than Boris Johnson

The Foreign Secretary has made a series of bizarre and damaging comments in recent weeks that in any other circumstances would disqualify her from high office.

Will Liz Truss turn out to be an even more disastrous Prime Minister than Boris Johnson?

That is the question we have to now ask ourselves, following yet another calamitous week for the soon-to-be occupant of Number 10.

Asked at a hustings on Thursday whether she would consider the French President a “friend or foe,” Truss responded, inexplicably, that “the jury is out”.

Adam Bienkov @AdamBienkov

Asked if President Macron is "a friend or a foe," Liz Truss replies that "the jury is out".

It’s hard to overstate quite how much of a breach of diplomatic convention this really is. It should go without saying that France is one of the UK’s closest and longest-standing allies. The two countries co-operate closely on everything from trade, to immigration, to national security. And while Brexit has clearly strained relations between the two countries, it has also in some ways actually increased our reliance on our closest mainland neighbours.

As Macron told journalists on Friday: “If between French and British people we are unable to say whether we are friends or enemies… then we are heading towards very serious problems.”

So what is Truss playing at?

One of her former government colleagues told me on Friday that the answer was obvious.

“We all know what gets a rise out of Tory audiences,” the former Conservative minister said.

“And by and large ‘bash the foreigner’ is one of them.”

So is this all her comment was, or is it in fact a warning sign of a much bigger disaster that is now hurtling down the track towards us?