The political drama over who will succeed Boris Johnson as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom took a whole new turn Tuesday night when a debate between two candidates ended with a crash—literally.
Tories Liz Truss, the UK's Foreign Secretary, and former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak were engaged in a live televised debate on the country's TalkTV network when presenter Kate McCann suddenly fainted.
Truss was in the middle of remarks when an commotion erupted off-camera, catching her off-guard and derailing the debate. See video of the moment below.
The clip showed Truss jumping and gasping "Oh my God!" with her hands to her mouth in shock as the presenter fell and a commotion ensued. Truss then calmly walked over to McCann as the cameras cut to a title card for the network's show Piers Morgan Uncensored.
TalkTV confirmed on Twitter that it was McCann who'd fallen during the broadcast, causing the debate to be suspended.
The network wrote:
"Kate McCann fainted on air tonight and although she is fine, the medical advice was that we shouldn't continue with the debate. We apologise to our viewers and listeners."
Following TalkTV's announcement, both Sunak and Truss wished McCann well in tweets. Sunak praised McCann's handling of the debate.
Truss expressed similar sentiments, saying she looked forward to working with McCann again soon.
Earlier today, McCann responded to the incident herself in a tweet in which she laughed off the dramatic moment and confirmed she'd be sitting down for her next stint as moderator.
McCann wrote:
"Well that wasn't how last night was supposed to end! Thanks everyone for the lovely messages❤️- I'm fine now - and apologies to @trussliz and @RishiSunak for cutting the debate short."
"Tonight I'll be unpicking the debate with some new polling from 7pm ( ...yes, sat down!)"
The incident was the latest in a series of British political hijinks, which have been in a state of disarray since Johnson announced his resignation earlier this month following a raft of overlapping scandals that culminated in scores of Johnson-aligned politicians resigning in protest, Sunak among them.
On Twitter, people couldn't help but laugh about the incident—especially those who don't share Sunak's and Truss' right-wing politics.
The roughly 200,000 dues-paying members of the Tory Party, dominant in the UK Parliament, will select between Truss and Sunak to lead the party and become the next Prime Minister.
Results will be announced September 5. The winner will take office shortly thereafter, following a ceremonial meeting with Queen Elizabeth II.
