All the times Tory MPs had no idea where in the world they were

As the Tory search to find a new leader for the party continues, hustings are taking place up and down the country.

On Thursday, the two remaining candidates Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak were facing off in Cheltenham, but it seemed Truss needed reminding of that as she embarrassingly mistook the county they were in.

Truss’s geography blunder reminded us that geography has historically not been a strong suit of Conservatives MPs who have got their location wrong on multiple occasions.

Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Here are all the times Tory MPs had no idea where in the world they were.

Liz Truss gets her shires wrong

In the sixth of 12 hustings for Conservative party members ahead of their vote for the new leader, Cheltenham played host to both candidates.

But, in one awkward part of the discussion, Truss appeared to get her shires in a muddle as she confidently informed audience members they were in Derbyshire when in fact the hustings actually took place in Gloucestershire.

Truss said: “We need to get on with delivering the small modular nuclear reactors which we produce here in Derbyshire.”

Needless to say, it didn’t go down well. Labour MP for Wigan, Lisa Nandy, tweeted: “God help us.”

Rishi Sunak thinks Darlington is in Scotland

In another awkward blunder on the campaign trail for party leader, Sunak appeared to believe that Darlington in County Durham was in Scotland.

During an interview on SpectatorTV, the former chancellor was asked if he’d be spending a lot of time in Scotland if he were to become the leader.

“I think people can already see that I take that seriously...I was the chancellor who set up an economic campus for the government and the treasury in Darlington.”

Rishi Sunak says the wrong northern town

In another Sunak mistake, the chancellor at the time left people majorly cringing after mixing up the names of two northern towns on live tv.

He was appearing live from Bury market giving an interview on BBC Breakfast to discuss the levelling up fund when he wrongly said that he was in Burnley.

Sunak said: “It is not just about being in the North, by the way, we’re here in Burnley but if you are growing up in a village in the South West or even on the South Coast, people want to feel the opportunity is there for them, wherever they happen to be.”

Liz Truss mixes up the Baltic and Black seas which are over 700 miles apart

The hustings blunder was not the first time Truss has got her geography in a twist. This time it came when she failed to understand the difference between the Baltic and Black seas.

Truss said on BBC’s Sunday Morning show: “We are supplying and offering extra support into our Baltic allies across the Black Sea”.

Her mistake was ridiculed by Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, who wrote on Facebook: “The Baltic countries are called so because they are located precisely off the coast of this [Baltic] sea. Not the Black [Sea].

“If anyone needs to be saved from anything, then it is the world from the stupidity and ignorance of Anglo-Saxon politicians.”

Eddie Hughes gets his constituency wrong

Hughes, the Tory MP for Walsall North, admitted making a geography-related blunder after mistakenly telling his Twitter followers he was out campaigning in North Staffordshire

In fact, Hughes was not in North Staffordshire at all but was actually out on the campaign trail in Wem, North Shropshire with Dr Shastri-Hurst and Oliver Dowden at the time.

Later in the day, he made an appearance on BBC Midlands Today where he corrected his mistake, telling the presenters: “My geography isn't great – I knew I was in Wem.”

Boris Johnson mixes up Yemen and Lebanon while Foreign Secretary

Possibly the most embarrassing of them all, considering it happened when Boris Johnson was serving as Foreign Secretary at the time, was when he mixed up Yemen and Lebanon during a cabinet meeting on the Yemen civil war.

As the foreign secretary, you might expect (or just hope) that Johnson would have known the difference between the two Middle Eastern countries.

In the meeting, Johnson reportedly repeated the blunder multiple times, at one point saying: “We have got to do something about the Saudi war on Lebanon.”

But, his continual mistake led to then Prime Minster Theresa May having to step in to correct him and avoid further embarrassment.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.