Liz Truss lawyers tell Keir Starmer to stop saying she ‘crashed the economy’

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Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss has sent a legal letter to Sir Keir Starmer asking him to stop claiming “the economy is in shambles”.

A cease-and-desist letter sent by UK law firm Asserson on Wednesday and reported by the Financial Times claims the statements about his actions are “false and defamatory”.

The letter claimed that the Prime Minister had caused “serious damage to her reputation” and even said that such comments may have contributed to her losing her parliamentary seat in last year’s general election.

“Our client requests that you immediately cease and desist from repeating the defamatory statements,” the letter said. “We sincerely hope that this matter can now be resolved and that you will refrain from causing our client any further harm.”

Starmer doubled down on his past comments on Thursday. The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “I don’t think so [prime minister] He is the only person in the country who shares this view of the previous government’s handling of the economy.”

Truss’ brief tenure as prime minister in 2022 saw the pound plunge and UK debt costs rise as he oversaw a “mini” budget that included £45bn of unfunded tax cuts. Later he resigned Only 44 days in officeAlmost the entire budget has been overturned.

His intervention this week could raise eyebrows in Westminster because Truss has a reputation as a staunch free speech campaigner. Last summer he threw his support behind Elon Musk’s free speech agenda, declaring on X: “I am appalled by the attack on free speech in Britain and Europe. Without freedom of speech we cannot be truly free.”

He has shown limited tolerance for criticism during his time in office, storming offstage after being heckled over his economic record at an event last year.

trussIts lawyers accused Starmer of making defamatory statements on three occasions in June last year when he said he had “disrupted the economy”, which they alleged were “false and misleading” and “grossly defamatory and untenable”.

The letter, which was first reported by the Telegraph, asked Starmer to stop making allegations and said the request was “made in the context of a rudimentary level of civility between senior politicians”.

The request from Truss to Starmer comes as the former prime minister has been vocal in recent days on social media platform X about Musk’s criticism of Starmer and his support for her handling of the historic grooming case involving the sexual exploitation of girls.

Truss shared Musk’s tweets and commented that the billionaire was “right to take them”.