Liz Truss has accused officials of breaching the civil service code after her mini-budget was described as a “disaster” in Government documents about the King’s Speech.
The former prime minister complained that references to the “mistakes” of her economic policy, which unleashed chaos in the markets and tanked the pound, were “untrue political attacks”.
She has written to the head of the civil service, Simon Case, asking him 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”.
“Political attack”
In the letter following the King’s Speech on Wednesday, 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 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’.”
“Disaster”
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 cites 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 ‘mini budget’ cannot be repeated”, the briefing says.
Since being ejected from Number 10 after just 49 days in office – making her Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister – 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.
The Cabinet Office has been contacted for comment.
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