Liz Truss has accused civil servants of breaching the civil service code after her mini-budget was described as a “disaster” in government papers about the King’s Speech.
The former prime minister complained that references to the “mistakes” of her economic policy, which unleashed chaos on the markets and sank the pound, were “false political attacks”.
The official 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 an appropriate reprimand for those responsible and the immediate removal of such political material from the gov.uk version of the document”.
In the letter following Wednesday’s King’s Speech, Ms Truss, who lost her Commons seat in the general election, said: “I have been informed that the background briefing notes to the King’s Speech published today and made available online contain repeated personal references to me and to actions taken by my government in the context of a political attack.
“Not only is the claim in the document false, as it makes no reference to the LDI crisis precipitated by the Bank of England’s regulatory failings, but I regard it as a flagrant breach of the civil service code, as such personal and political attacks have no place in a document prepared by civil servants – a failure made even more flagrant when the attack is allowed to be disguised in the document amongst ‘key facts’.”
In a briefing made available online after Charles’ speech at the State Opening of Parliament, the Government had referred to the “disaster” of Ms Truss’s radical tax cuts agenda and quoted 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 taxation and spending would be subject to 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 report says.
Since being ousted from Number 10 after just 49 days in office (making her Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister), Ms Truss has admitted her plan to quickly abolish the 45p top rate of tax went too far but has otherwise defended her failed bid to boost growth.
The Cabinet Office has been contacted for comment.
