Liz Truss sends legal letter ordering Starmer to stop saying she crashed economy

Liz Truss has sent a legal letter to Keir Starmer demanding he stops making “false and defamatory” claims that she crashed the economy.The former prime minister sent a six-page “cease and desist” letter accusing Starmer of harming her reputation and contributing to her losing her South West Norfolk seat in the general election.The row came as the UK’s long-term borrowing costs hit their highest level since the 2008 banking crisis, and the value of the pound reached its lowest point in a year.Truss’s legal letter argued that the market meltdown that followed her disastrous mini-budget in October 2022 could not accurately be described as “a crash of the economy” because it did not involve a fall in GDP or rise in unemployment.Citing a report by the economist and rightwing commentator Andrew Lilico for Europe Economics, the letter said the economic turmoil was the result of factors over which Truss had “no control”

Ties between Labour MP Tulip Siddiq and deposed Bangladeshi regime under spotlight

Tulip Siddiq reacted with anger when she was confronted in 2017 by reporters from Channel 4 asking her to intervene in the case of Ahmad bin Quasem, a British-educated lawyer who had allegedly been abducted in Bangladesh by the regime of Siddiq’s aunt, Sheikh Hasina.“Are you aware that I am a British MP and that I’m born in London?” she asked Alex Thomson, the channel’s chief correspondent. “Are you implying that I’m a Bangladeshi? Because I don’t think that’s the right thing to imply.”Despite Siddiq’s insistence that she has little to do with her aunt’s now-deposed government in Dhaka, the City minister is now under pressure to explain why she has benefited from property paid for by people connected with that regime.Siddiq, who has responsibility for UK anti-corruption policy, has referred herself to Laurie Magnus, the prime minister’s independent adviser on ministerial standards, to decide whether she has broken the ministerial code

Half of England’s county councils due to hold elections could ask for delay – reports

Half of the county councils due to have elections in England this spring could ask to have them postponed.Local elections are due to take place in 21 county council areas in England in May, but at least 12 of them are poised to ask ministers for a delay, the BBC and the Times reported.Angela Rayner, the local government secretary, has given councils until Friday to request that their elections be delayed so that they can explore the potential for restructuring their local authority as part of devolution plans.Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party has reacted furiously to the potential delay. Several of the councils that have asked to postpone the ballots, including Essex and Thurrock, are key Reform target areas

Civil service morale worsened despite improving pay levels, survey finds

Morale and churn in the UK civil service worsened despite average pay almost bouncing back to real-terms levels last seen in 2010, an annual survey has found.The Whitehall Monitor report, by the Institute for Government (IfG) thinktank, due to be published next Thursday, found that average civil service pay rose for the 2023-24 financial year, with the government settling disputes that had led to industrial action.However, its analysis of morale for 2023 found the mean “engagement” score dipped slightly for the third year in row, while churn in jobs – those who move between departments or leave the civil service entirely – went up by a percentage point to 12.7%.Although the figures relate to a period before the Labour government came to power, the IfG said its report underlined the challenge Keir Starmer faces as he tries to reform the civil service and make it more dynamic

Post-cold war peace ‘well and truly over’, warns David Lammy

The post-cold war era is “well and truly over” and keeping the British people safe means standing up to Russia, the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, has warned.Writing in the Guardian before a meeting likely to be focused on Ukraine between the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in Downing Street, Lammy insists “keeping the British people safe means standing up to the Kremlin. Working with our friends and allies to deter Putin’s mafia state.”He also says facing down the new geopolitical threats will require a revamped Foreign Office that accepts that the distinctions between international and domestic policy have become more blurred than ever before.In a statement of this intent, Lammy announced the Foreign Office will introduce the first standalone sanctions regime in the world directed at freezing the UK assets of people smugglers and organised crime entities

Tories’ Pavlovian response to Elon Musk’s tweets leads to shameless PMQs | John Crace

Last weekend the Daily Mail ran a front-page story about the imminent demise of Keir Starmer. A few days on and it’s increasingly looking like Kemi Badenoch whose job may be on the line. Just take a look at the faces of her backbench MPs at prime minister’s questions. Faces taut. Wishing they were somewhere else