LONDON – Liz Truss considered stopping publicly-funded cancer treatment as she battled to avert a meltdown in U.K. public finances, a new book has claimed.
Published in full Thursday, extracts from “Truss at 10: How Not to Be Prime Minister” suggest the U.K.’s shortest serving prime minister and her then-Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng were desperately seeking spending cuts after their infamous mini-budget precipitated market turmoil.
The book by historian Anthony Seldon claims adviser Alex Boyd was told Truss and Kwarteng thought “they could still sort out the black hole with severe cuts,” which included “looking at stopping cancer treatment on the NHS.”
Aides apparently said Truss had “lost the plot” as she was “shouting at everyone that ‘We’ve got to find the money,’” according to extracts which first appeared in the Independent.
Kwarteng, who stood down at the general election, told the paper: “I wasn’t involved in any conversations about restricting healthcare, but that doesn’t mean the prime minister and her team didn’t discuss this.”
Since leaving office, Truss has blamed the Bank of England, the Treasury and the Office for Budget Responsibility for the economic chaos which formed the backdrop to her premiership. She lost her seat at the general election in July, becoming the first former prime minister to experience such ignominy since 1935.
It may cheer her up to know that Seldon, who has co-authored numerous political biographies of prime ministers, believes Truss was a better PM than her predecessor, Boris Johnson, who he labels the worst of all time.
“She did at least have an intellectual drive and economic policy consistency about her,” he told the Times. “She was undoubtedly clever and had objectives that she passionately believed in and wanted to achieve.”
A spokesperson for Liz Truss did not respond to a request for comment.
Liz Truss considered charging UK cancer patients, new book claims
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