Are bizarre claims falsely linking Liz Truss to the ousted BP chief a crude bid to halt her comeback?

It was a rare declare, even by the febrile requirements of life in Westminster. It was additionally utterly unfounded.

However that did not cease former Prime Minister Liz Truss being bizarrely linked to final week’s turmoil on the high of oil big BP, as chief government Bernard Looney was compelled out for failing to be ‘absolutely clear’ with the corporate over his previous private relationships.

Within the Commons, senior Ministers have been claiming, with obvious seriousness, that fortunately married Ms Truss was one of many Mr Looney’s ‘undeclared relationships’.

She advised The Mail on Sunday: ‘I do not consider I’ve ever met him.’

A spokesman for Mr Looney made the same denial.

Baseless rumours are nothing new in Westminster, and are seen by politicians as a regrettable however inevitable a part of the panorama. 

Nonetheless, associates of Ms Truss consider extra is at play on this case: an ingrained cultural misogyny, for starters, but in addition an try by her political rivals to discredit her as she mounts a political comeback.

Tomorrow Ms Truss will use a speech on the Institute For Authorities to make what’s being billed as her first vital intervention in regards to the financial system since leaving workplace. 

It comes virtually precisely a yr after her mini-Finances crashed the markets and lit the fuse for the tip of her premiership.

In what will likely be seen as criticism of Rishi Sunak’s financial insurance policies, she is going to argue that, had she remained PM, public spending would have been £35.5 billion decrease this monetary yr.

Ms Truss admitted in final week’s MoS that she nonetheless struggles to compute what occurred throughout her time in No 10. 

She additionally introduced she was writing a guide, Ten Years To Save The West, which can inform the within story of her 49 days as PM and argue that the principle causes of her downfall have been an absence of ‘assist for Conservative concepts’ and an excessive amount of energy on the ‘international Left’.

Mr Looney resigned as chief government of BP after lower than 4 years. In an announcement, BP introduced his departure following an investigation into his conduct and private relationships with colleagues.

His ex-wife, Jacqueline Hurst, has stated that he ended their marriage by textual content message.

In her self-help guide How To Do You, Ms Hurst wrote: ‘When my husband ended our marriage immediately and with out warning through a WhatsApp message, I used to be naturally devastated. 

I realized later that he had solely married me as a result of he wished to get to the subsequent stage of seniority within the firm he labored at, and he needed to be seen to be married to be able to be given the promotion’.

In a BP overview, Mr Looney ‘disclosed a small variety of historic relationships with colleagues previous to changing into CEO’, however the firm stated that it had acquired ‘additional allegations of the same nature’ extra not too long ago. 

The assertion added that Mr Looney ‘didn’t present particulars of all relationships and accepts he was obligated to make extra full disclosure’.