Former Prime Minister Liz Truss has sent a cease and desist letter to Sir Keir Starmer, telling him to stop accusing her of crashing the UK economy.
Lawyers for the shortest-serving leader in British history suggested the accusation might have contributed to her dramatically losing her seat in July’s general election.
A letter sent to the current PM lists three times he made a reference to Truss ‘crashing the economy’ in the month leading up to the vote.
It says these statements are ‘not only extremely damaging but also grossly defamatory and indefensible’.
They were also ‘likely to materially impact public opinion of our Client whilst she was standing as the parliamentary candidate for the Conservative Party in South West Norfolk’, the letter claims.
Truss went on to lose that seat to Labour candidate Terry Jermy, in one of the most stunning results of the general election.
A Downing Street spokesman said: ‘I am not sure I have seen the detail of the letter, but from what I can gather, I don’t think the prime minister is the only person in the country who shares the view in relation to the previous government’s handling of the economy.
‘I guess the question is whether she will be writing to millions of people up and down the country as well, who felt her economic record which pushed their mortgage bills up.’
Asked whether Sir Keir had plans to moderate his language, he said: ‘No.’
Sir Keir and other members of his Labour front bench have relished using the damage that followed the October 2022 ‘mini-budget’ to bash the Tories on the economy.
The Budget Responsibility Act, one of the first bills to pass into law after Labour took power, was sold as a measure to ensure such a situation can’t be repeated.
It is now a legal requirement for the Office for Budget Responsibility to produce forecasts ahead of major tax decisions.
But the letter claims there was no ‘crash of the economy’, and any rate movements that did take place ‘were caused by the Bank of England’.
It cites a report from Dr Andrew Lilico from right-wing think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs, which clears Truss of any responsibility for the market volatility that followed the budget.
The letter, sent by Asserson Law Offices, concludes that the repeated statements ’caused serious harm to our Client’s reputation’, and there is a ‘strong inference’ that this was done ‘for political purposes’.
It’s not the first time Truss has complained about Labour’s take on her time in office.
Last year, the ex-PM said descriptions of her mini-budget as ‘disastrous’ in briefing notes for the King’s Speech were a ‘flagrant breach’ of impartiality rules.
The references were removed as a result.
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