Former Prime Minister Liz Truss has despatched a authorized “stop and desist” letter to Sir Keir Starmer demanding he cease saying she “crashed the economic system”.
Her attorneys argue the declare made repeatedly by Sir Keir is “false and defamatory” and harmed her politically within the run-up to shedding her South West Norfolk seat within the normal election.
Truss was the UK’s shortest-serving PM, compelled to resign after simply 49 days in workplace when borrowing prices soared within the aftermath of her authorities’s mini-budget.
Downing Avenue has been approached for remark.
However Commons chief Lucy Powell instructed MPs “we cannot stop and desist from telling the reality that they [the Conservatives] crashed the economic system”.
Additionally talking within the Commons, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones mentioned the actions taken by the Conservatives in authorities have been “not simply reckless and negligent – they’d a direct affect on household funds”.
In the meantime, the pound has dropped to its lowest degree in over a yr and authorities borrowing prices have continued to rise as issues concerning the public funds mount.
Sterling started to fall in worth after UK 10-year borrowing prices rose once more, surging to their highest degree for 16 years.
Economists have warned these rising prices might power additional tax rises or cuts in spending as the federal government tries to satisfy its self-imposed borrowing targets.
Powell mentioned the price of authorities debt usually fluctuated “due to world markets”, however argued the Truss authorities’s mini-budget, in September 2022, which included wide-ranging tax cuts, had led to a market response “immediately and instantly”.
A “stop and desist” letter normally represents a warning that the recipient will face authorized motion in the event that they proceed the allegedly illegal exercise.
Within the letter despatched to Sir Keir on Wednesday, Truss’s attorneys say his statements about their shopper are “false and deceptive”.
“Their publication just isn’t solely extraordinarily damaging but in addition grossly defamatory and indefensible… It could be arduous to keep away from a conclusion that they have been made maliciously,” the letter provides.
Truss’s attorneys say they’re searching for “an amicable foundation on which you’ll conform to stop repetition of what’s clearly a factually incorrect and defamatory assertion about our shopper.
“This request is made within the context of the fundamental ranges of civility which is due between senior politicians, and we belief that you’ll reply accordingly.”
The letter argues that the actions in monetary markets throughout Truss’s tenure in No 10 shouldn’t be categorised as an financial crash.
The weeks following the mini-budget noticed opposed market response and mortgage prices soar.
At the Conservative Party conference in October, Truss mentioned it could be “financial illiteracy” to counsel that tax rises from Labour – at that time anticipated in Rachel Reeves’ upcoming first Price range – have been a results of her financial inheritance.
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, 2025-01-09 12:25:00
