UK

Liz Truss ‘considered scrapping all NHS cancer treatment after crashing economy’, new book claims

'Aides ‘lost the plot’ when they heard of Truss’ plan to scrap cancer treatment on the NHS.'

Basit Mahmood 

Yesterday

Left Foot Forward

Former Prime Minister Liz Truss was so deluded that she considered scrapping cancer treatment on the NHS as she desperately tried to repair the economic carnage caused by her disastrous mini-Budget, a new book has claimed.

The claim was made in a new biography of the Prime Minister written by Sir Anthony Seldon.

The biography, titled ‘How Not to Be a Prime Minister’, is deeply critical of Ms Truss and her premiership, after she was forced to resign after just 49 days in office, following her disastrous mini-budget which resulted in financial turmoil and the pound collapsing.

The Independent reports that aides ‘lost the plot’ when they heard of Truss’ plan to scrap cancer treatment on the NHS.

It reports: “Sir Anthony says a group of Ms Truss’s Tory aides met to discuss the issue. One of her senior advisers, Alex Boyd, “was told that Truss and Kwarteng were thinking they could still sort out the black hole with severe cuts”: “We’ve been told that they’re looking at stopping cancer treatment on the NHS.”

“Mr Boyd’s response was to ask “Is she being serious?” writes Sir Anthony, while other aides said she had “lost the plot”.

“She’s shouting at everyone 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,’” they told the author.”

A spokesperson for Truss has denied the claims.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward