Liz Truss threatens Starmer using ‘pro-Israel’ law firm that called Labour ‘hotbed for racism’

Former British prime minister Liz Truss has employed a pro-Israel legislation agency whose largest workplace is in Tel Aviv and which referred to as Labour “antisemitic” in 2020 to ship a stop and desist letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The letter accuses Starmer of creating “false and deceptive” feedback in the course of the 2024 normal election marketing campaign that Truss “crashed the economic system”, saying the claims are defamatory.

Truss’s mini-Finances in September 2o22 introduced £45bn of unfunded tax cuts, sending monetary markets right into a panic. Lower than two weeks later, Truss resigned from the premiership.

She then misplaced her seat as an MP within the July 2024 election.

The stop and desist letter, first reported on Thursday, was despatched by legislation agency Assersson, which referred to as Labour underneath former chief Jeremy Corbyn “a hotbed for racism”.

Based by British Jerusalem-based lawyer Trevor Assersson, the agency has its headquarters in London however its largest workplace in Tel Aviv.

Trevor Assersson, the agency’s senior accomplice, has taken up numerous pro-Israel causes within the UK over the previous few years.

In 2024 Assersson produced a extremely publicised report attacking the BBC’s protection of Israel’s conflict on Gaza, accusing it of anti-Israel bias.

The examine discovered that the BBC was 14 instances extra more likely to accuse Israel of genocide than Hamas, alleging a “deeply worrying sample of bias”.

The BBC’s worldwide editor, Jeremy Bowen, dismissed the findings as “deeply flawed”.

Labelling Labour antisemitic

Assersson beforehand represented the pro-Israel group Marketing campaign In opposition to Antisemitism (CAA) in its criticism towards the Labour Celebration underneath Jeremy Corbyn’s management.

CAA, which the Charity Fee is presently investigating, referred Labour to the Equality and Human Rights Fee (EHRC) over alleged antisemitism. 

In November 2020, when Keir Starmer had turn into chief, the agency labelled Labour “antisemitic” in an article printed on its web site.

It quoted Trevor Assersson saying: “The Labour Celebration grew to become a hotbed for racism underneath Corbyn’s ‘management’, directed at members of the UK’s Jewish inhabitants.”

He added: “It’s to be hoped that the Labour Celebration can discover the power to throw off its institutional racism, and return to being a celebration of the individuals.”

The article itself stated: “Starmer should be sure that antisemitism within the Labour Celebration, along with those that allowed it to develop, are excised from the get together.”

In November it emerged that Britain’s charity regulator, the Charity Fee, was investigating CAA for calling the Labour govenrment’s partial arms ban on Israel “obscene” in September 2024.

Assersson has an extra historical past of taking pro-Israel circumstances.

In 2021 the legislation agency introduced proceedings towards David Miller, a professor at Bristol College, accusing him of antisemitism.

Miller was fired by the college for expressing anti-Zionist views.

“We commend each the scholars, our shoppers, for taking the motion, and the Marketing campaign In opposition to Antisemitism for supporting them,” Assersson stated on the time.

In 2024, nonetheless, a decide dominated that Miller was unfairly dismissed and subjected to discrimination – a big loss for Assersson. 

Starmer strikes again

Now the agency is concentrating on Prime Minister Starmer, who has hit again.

On Thursday afternoon, his official spokesperson stated: “You have bought the prime minister’s language which he completely stands by in relation to the earlier authorities’s [economic] file, and you do not have to take it from the prime minister.

“I believe you’ll be able to ask individuals up and down the nation what the impression of earlier financial administration was on their mortgages, on inflation, and I believe you may get related solutions.”

Truss has maintained that she is a sufferer of a conspiracy.