Keir Starmer delivered a savage jibe at Liz Truss after she demanded he stops saying she crashed the economy.

The wrecking-ball former Tory PM raised eyebrows across Westminster when her lawyers wrote to Mr Starmer accusing him of damaging her reputation. Lawyers for Ms Truss, who was kicked out of No10 after her mini-budget unleashed chaos in 2022, said the PM must cease and desist from repeating the remarks.

But he doubled down at as he lashed out at Tory economic incompetence. He quipped: "I got a letter this week from a Tory voter in a seat. I hope they don't mind me saying who it was, it was .

"It wasn't written in green ink but it might as well have been. She was complaining that saying she crashed the economy was damaging her reputation. It was crashing the economy that damaged her reputation."

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The 49-day leader, whose mini-budget unleashed chaos in 2022, claims statements made by Mr Starmer in the build-up to the were "false and defamatory". Her reputation suffered as a result, her lawyers wrote.

Ms Truss dramatically lost her South West Norfolk seat to in July as the Tories plummeted to a historic defeat. The ex-Tory leader has steadfastly maintained that others were to blame for her downfall.

The letter said Mr Starmer's comments about Ms Truss "are causing continuing damage to our client’s reputation". It demands: "Accordingly, our client requests that you immediately cease and desist from repeating the defamatory statements at any point, from causing them to be repeated or from otherwise re-publishing the defamatory statements or any part of them."

Mr Starmer's quip came after the PM labelled the Tories "economic vandals and fantasists". He went on to accuse of reaching for a "magic money tree" - on the day inflation unexpectedly dipped to 2.5% in welcome news to Chancellor .

Responding to an attack by Ms Badenoch he said: "We had to deal with the £22 billion black hole that they left, made difficult cuts, raised taxes to invest in health, public services and housing, vital to disability, vital to growth, and we've got an ironclad commitment to our fiscal rules, and she will welcome, no doubt, the inflation figures from this morning.

"But contrast that with the party opposite, they weren't brave enough in government to take those difficult decisions. They've opposed all of our measures to stabilise the economy and promote growth.

"They're back to the magic money tree, she wants all the benefits of the budget, but she can't say how she's going to pay for them. They haven't changed, they're still economic vandals and fantasists, imagine where we'd be if they were still in charge."

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