Liam Byrne: My anguish over “there is no money” note

Former Labour Cabinet minister Liam Byrne has revealed the level of shame he felt over the controversy caused by a note he left in the Treasury upon leaving office saying there was “no money” left.

Byrne says that the embarrassment the 2010 letter caused – it was even used by David Cameron during the election campaign five years later – made him ready to quit politics altogether.

Speaking at the Cheltenham Literary Festival, Byrne said that he felt “desperation” over the death of his father from alcoholism and the fact that his letter, meant as a joke, was being used to “hammer” Labour.  He only recovered from the “anguish” after his uncle gave him some advice from Samuel Beckett novella.

“I was ready to quit public life,” Byrne said, reports The Times. “I hadn’t been able to save my dad from drinking and I had written this note that was now being used to hammer the Labour Party. So I, in my desperation, in a real moment of anguish, took myself to my uncle, who is the wisest man I know. He walked me up to the cliff at the back of his house and I was kind of ready to throw myself off. I said, ‘What am I supposed to do?’ And he gave me a brilliant line from Samuel Beckett: ‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.'”

The controversy began when David Laws, Byrne’s Lib Dem successor as Chef Secretary to the Treasury, revealed that he had been left a note saying: “Dear Chief Secretary, I’m afraid there is no money. Kind regards – and good luck! Liam”.

Byrne has since said that the note was intended as a joke for Phillip Hammond, whom he presumed would be taking up the role. Hammond himself says that he would have followed convention and not made the letter public.

Last year Byrne wrote about his experience of being raised by a single father suffering from alcoholism, and now chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on children of alcoholics.