Liz Truss doesn’t frighten Labour

Labour will attack the new prime minister from the left and the right. From Liz Truss’ exposed left flank, Labour and the majority of the electorate will hammer her for not extending the windfall tax to cover the estimated £170 billion in profits Vladimir Putin has gifted gas and electricity generators. Do not imagine for a moment that it won’t be effective.

The attack from the right is less obvious but gets to the heart of the risk Liz Truss is running with the UK economy. ‘We need to paint her as fiscally irresponsible,’ one adviser to Labour’s Treasury team told me. ‘That’s as important as showing she has the wrong priorities.’

Truss’s promise of unfunded tax cuts for the already wealthy threatens to add a financial crisis to the cost-of-living crisis. The pound is down to $1.15 and will push the price of imports even higher if its fall continues. The Bank of England is certain to respond by raising interest rates.