Led By Donkeys Labour is fair game’, says satirical campaign group

The satirical artists' collective Led By Donkeys says the Labour government is "fair game" and it would be "inconceivable" for the group not to hold it accountable over the next few years.

- Harriet Sherwood

"We're not starry-eyed about Labour," said a founder member, Ben Stewart, after the group made headlines this week when it targeted Liz Truss.

Truss was in the middle of voicing her support for Donald Trump's campaign to regain the White House in November when a remote-controlled banner was lowered behind the former Conservative prime minister at an event in Suffolk. It featured a giant lettuce and the words "I crashed the economy".

Truss walked off the stage, saying: "That's not funny." She issued a statement on X saying Led By Donkeys were "far-left activists" who used the stunt as a means to "intimidate people and suppress free speech", adding: "I won't stand for it." Stewart, one of four men who created Led By Donkeys, activated the banner from his seat in the audience but declined to explain how the group had pulled off the stunt, other than to say they had no inside help.

"It presented something of a challenge, but I can't tell you how we did it," Stewart said. He consciously chose the moment when Truss was "aligning herself with the far right in America" to lower the banner.