Liz Truss ‘considered cutting free cancer care on NHS’ as mini-Budget unravelled
Former PM denies claim in new Anthony Seldon biography that she considered the far-reaching move during her tumultuous 49 days in office.
Liz Truss reportedly considered cutting free cancer care on the NHS as her mini-Budget unravelled, prompting advisers to exclaim: “She’s lost the plot.”
Historian Sir Anthony Seldon’s book about Ms Truss’s tumultuous 49 days in Downing Street claims that aides were told the former prime minister was contemplating far-reaching cuts so she could deliver her tax-cutting agenda.
However, a spokesman for Ms Truss denied the cancer care claim and said it was untrue.
The mini-Budget, outlined by then-chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng in the House of Commons, sparked turmoil in the financial markets and plunged the government into a desperate fight for its survival.
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Extracts of Truss at 10: How Not to Be Prime Minister, published in The Independent, said adviser Alex Boyd “was told that Truss and Kwarteng were thinking they could still sort out the black hole with severe cuts”.
The book went on: “‘We’ve been told that they’re looking at stopping cancer treatment on the NHS,’ they told him.
“‘Is she being serious?’ Boyd asked. ‘She’s lost the plot,’ they replied. ‘She’s shouting at everyone – at us and officials that we’ve ‘got to find the money!’ When we tell her it can’t be done, she shouts back: ‘It’s not true. The money is there. You go and find it.’”
A spokesman for Liz Truss said of the cancer treatment claim: “It is completely untrue that she ever considered it.”
In the book, Sir Anthony also says the mini-Budget knocked the Conservatives’ reputation as the party of sound financial management.
Mortgage rates, which had been rising anyway, suddenly shot up after the statement and led to her sacking Mr Kwarteng and bringing in Jeremy Hunt as chancellor. He immediately reversed almost all of the measures.
Days later, Ms Truss quit and became British history’s shortest-serving prime minister. She was replaced by Rishi Sunak, who she had defeated in a Tory leadership contest only weeks before.
Ms Truss later lost her seat as MP for South West Norfolk at the 2024 General Election.
