Text describing Liz Truss’s mini-budget as a “disaster” has been removed from Government documents after the former prime minister complained that it breached civil service rules.
Ms Truss, Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister, had written to the head of the civil service, Simon Case , complaining that references to her in documents released alongside the King’s Speech were “untrue political attacks”.
Briefing notes about the contents of the speech, delivered by the King on Wednesday, included references to the “mistakes” of Ms Truss’s economic policy.
In her letter, she asked Mr Case to “urgently investigate how such material came to be included in this document, ensure suitable admonishment for those responsible and the immediate removal of such political material from the version of the document on gov.uk”.
A spokesperson for the Cabinet Office said Mr Case had replied to Ms Truss and ordered that the references be removed.
In the letter after the King’s Speech, Ms Truss, who lost her Commons seat at the General Election, said: “It has been brought to my attention that the King’s Speech background briefing notes published today and available online contain repeated references personally to me and actions undertaken by my government in the context of a political attack.
“Not only is what is stated in the document untrue, making no reference to the LDI (liability-driven investment) crisis precipitated by the Bank of England’s regulatory failures, but I regard it as a flagrant breach of the civil service code, since such personal and political attacks have no place in a document prepared by civil servants – an error made all the more egregious when the attack is allowed to masquerade in the document among ‘key facts’.”
In a briefing made available online after Charles’s address at the State Opening of Parliament, the Government had referred to the “disaster” of Ms Truss’s radical tax-cutting agenda and cited the Institute for Government think tank as saying the mini-budget was “a lesson in how not to do fiscal policy”.
A section of the document outlining the Budget Responsibility Bill – which would seek to strengthen the role of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) – proposes that significant and permanent changes to tax and spend would be subject to an independent assessment by the Treasury watchdog.
This would be introduced “to ensure that the mistakes of Liz Truss’s ‘mini budget’ cannot be repeated”, the briefing says.
Since being ejected from Number 10 after just 49 days in office, Ms Truss has conceded her plan to quickly abolish the 45p top rate of tax went too far, but otherwise defended her failed bid to boost growth.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “The Cabinet Secretary has responded to Liz Truss and directed for these references to be removed from the document. They have now been corrected and updated.”
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