Liz Truss considered scrapping all cancer treatment on the NHS in a desperate bid to repair the damage caused by her disastrous economic policies, according to a new book.
The extraordinary claim is made in a new biography of Ms Truss by Sir Anthony Seldon.
Sir Anthony, who is Britain’s leading political biographer, also states that Ms Truss’s allies feared her team could be targeted with a “cocaine” smear by unnamed figures at Tory HQ who wanted to stop her from becoming prime minister.
Sir Anthony’s book, Truss at 10: How Not to Be a Prime Minister, is deeply critical of Ms Truss, who was forced to resign in 2022 after she triggered an economic crisis by proposing the introduction of £45bn of unfunded tax cuts. She spent only 49 days in office.
The author claims that, in the immediate aftermath of the mini-Budget, Ms Truss and her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, launched a desperate attempt to find spending cuts in an effort to restore stock-market confidence in their strategy.
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.
Speaking to The Independent, Mr Kwarteng said: “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.”
According to Sir Anthony, arch-Brexiteer (now Sir) Jacob Rees-Mogg tried to persuade Ms Truss to make him chancellor instead of Mr Kwarteng.
Sir Anthony mockingly compares Mr Rees-Mogg’s “passionate” attempt to “woo” Ms Truss into putting him in charge of the Treasury to the attempt by Malvolio, the pompous cross-gartered flunky in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, to seduce Lady Olivia.
The author says Mr Rees-Mogg urged Ms Truss to abolish inheritance tax, replace all tax rates with a 20p flat rate, and organise a stunt to promote nuclear power.
He writes that the then cabinet minister told Ms Truss: “We should get a nuclear submarine to dock at Liverpool and plug it into the grid. That would show it is safe.” Sir Anthony says cabinet secretary Simon Case dismissed the idea as a “non-starter”, adding that “the subs are needed in operations”.
He describes friction with other senior Conservatives, and says that Ms Truss referred to Michael Gove as a “snake” after he denounced her tax cuts.
Sir Anthony claims that Ms Truss suspected that a “dirty tricks” operation was being planned by unnamed figures in Tory HQ in an effort to stop her from becoming leader. He says her allies feared there would be an attempt to “intimidate her with talk of a thick dossier of her indiscretions, her drinking, cocaine use by others among her team”.
In the event, the dossier “never materialised”, says the author.
Holly_Till on
I can’t even pretend I’m surprised.
Really though I’m surprised her go-to wasn’t like shutting down all the gender clinics and stuff if she wanted a quick buck
tttttfffff on
If this happened, she’d have a higher death toll on her hands than Johnson. Thank goodness there were some slightly more rational brains
Xenozip3371Alpha on
Is anyone really shocked by how useless this fuckwit is at this point?
Original_Success3895 on
Let us hope Sir Anthony releases the evidence behind his ‘extraordinary claim’ which for now appears to be just hearsay being spread to sell more copies of his upcoming book.
I’m surprised the mods have allowed this article to be posted because it’s essentially political commentary which breaks rule 7. There are no facts being reported about here.
Id1ing on
She’s just amazingly stupid. Even if you decided to go down that route.. why pick cancer? A condition that is potentially treatable. Not that I would promote it but if you were going to go down that route there are much more obvious conditions e.g. dementia etc where you could argue we have no good treatments, it’s generally in the elderly and all we do is drag out the suck and so you could potentially ask the question why are we even trying? But cancer generally, christ.
MR-DEDPUL on
The Daily Fail, Torygraph and The S*n would like you to remember that Keir Starmer has said the October budget is going to be horrible, however! It is still worse under Labour!
/s in case anyone is stupid enough to think this is anything but sarcasm
NorthernSoul1977 on
Forget that, Labour are the new bad guys around here!
super_sammie on
We could just you know…. Kill the poor.
Has anyone actually run the numbers?
Hoping someone gets the reference.
WiggyDiggyPoo on
I want to remember Kwasi Kwateng as well when Liz Truss is mentioned.
Fuck me, there’s batshit insane and then there’s batshit insane.
That sort of thought process would be almost asking for a coup ffs.
dravidosaurus2 on
Gosh, she’s only just turning 10? Her reign makes a little bit more sense, in that case.
verytallperson1 on
utterly mad that this absolute fucking moron was ever a minister of state, let alone the fucking PM. Proper shit-for-brains stuff.
alfienoakes on
Whose mind would even think of that? She is an utter disgrace.
ACO_22 on
How do people this stupid make it to the top?
Like, I get it. Everyone is stupid in their own way and everyone fucks up. I can excuse a lot of the Tory cronies before as sinister and evil rather than plain stupid.
But this? This is just outright stupid. Like there’s nothing for her to personally gain from this. It’s absolute sheer and utter stupidity at the very peak
codernaut85 on
I would not let this woman near a toaster let alone any position of power or responsibility. She must have the IQ of a cucumber.
Any-Weight-2404 on
“Have you tried killing all the poor?” Is probably going to go right over her head.
Dr_Biggusdickus on
Just when you thought the Tories couldn’t sink any lower
PoggleRebecca on
🎵You can suffer, you can die
No treatment at the end of your life
Ooh, see that girl, so obscene
The Tory Cancer Queen🎵
YerMawAndPaw on
Right, I’m failing to make any logical connections here so please explain to me like I’m five – why the fuck would you do that?
Ok_Fly_9544 on
There are very few people I hate, she is one of them. She is a disgusting human being.
In__Dreamz on
Ianucci is right yet again, how can you make satire when real life is just so barmy you can’t out so it.
Prestigious_Talk_520 on
This shit is absolutely sensationalist hyperbole. She did not “crash the economy”. She caused short term drop in confidence in UK gilts and spiked rates. It’s impact on UK growth and inflation was absolutely minimal
Equivalent_Pool_1892 on
If she had planned that, I suspect she would have had to flee the country – there would be a target on her back.
padestel on
I think most people are missing something about this story. Yes Truss is incredibly stupid for even considering this but how did she get to a position where there was ever a possibility of this being considered? The Tory party that put her in charge, the media that supported her are still there without any sense of self introspection on if they erred when they installed her as leader.
fhdhsu on
Yeah ok, I don’t believe that for shit.
Not least because this would have already been leaked if true.
One_Psychology_ on
We’re fast heading into 3rd world shithole territory, might as well stop pretending otherwise
Emotional_Active459 on
But the feminists said that the world should be run by women because they are more empathetic than men.
milkyteapls on
Kind of insane to think we had this brief moment of madness where Liz Truss became Prime Minister then quickly got turfed out.
Almost like it was just a bad dream
Boundish91 on
Why on earth would you even consider such a thing? And last time i checked this isn’t a dictatorship so she can’t be the only one to blame.
31 Comments
Liz Truss considered scrapping all cancer treatment on the NHS in a desperate bid to repair the damage caused by her disastrous economic policies, according to a new book.
The extraordinary claim is made in a new biography of Ms Truss by Sir Anthony Seldon.
Sir Anthony, who is Britain’s leading political biographer, also states that Ms Truss’s allies feared her team could be targeted with a “cocaine” smear by unnamed figures at Tory HQ who wanted to stop her from becoming prime minister.
Sir Anthony’s book, Truss at 10: How Not to Be a Prime Minister, is deeply critical of Ms Truss, who was forced to resign in 2022 after she triggered an economic crisis by proposing the introduction of £45bn of unfunded tax cuts. She spent only 49 days in office.
The author claims that, in the immediate aftermath of the mini-Budget, Ms Truss and her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, launched a desperate attempt to find spending cuts in an effort to restore stock-market confidence in their strategy.
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.
Speaking to The Independent, Mr Kwarteng said: “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.”
According to Sir Anthony, arch-Brexiteer (now Sir) Jacob Rees-Mogg tried to persuade Ms Truss to make him chancellor instead of Mr Kwarteng.
Sir Anthony mockingly compares Mr Rees-Mogg’s “passionate” attempt to “woo” Ms Truss into putting him in charge of the Treasury to the attempt by Malvolio, the pompous cross-gartered flunky in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, to seduce Lady Olivia.
The author says Mr Rees-Mogg urged Ms Truss to abolish inheritance tax, replace all tax rates with a 20p flat rate, and organise a stunt to promote nuclear power.
He writes that the then cabinet minister told Ms Truss: “We should get a nuclear submarine to dock at Liverpool and plug it into the grid. That would show it is safe.” Sir Anthony says cabinet secretary Simon Case dismissed the idea as a “non-starter”, adding that “the subs are needed in operations”.
He describes friction with other senior Conservatives, and says that Ms Truss referred to Michael Gove as a “snake” after he denounced her tax cuts.
Sir Anthony claims that Ms Truss suspected that a “dirty tricks” operation was being planned by unnamed figures in Tory HQ in an effort to stop her from becoming leader. He says her allies feared there would be an attempt to “intimidate her with talk of a thick dossier of her indiscretions, her drinking, cocaine use by others among her team”.
In the event, the dossier “never materialised”, says the author.
I can’t even pretend I’m surprised.
Really though I’m surprised her go-to wasn’t like shutting down all the gender clinics and stuff if she wanted a quick buck
If this happened, she’d have a higher death toll on her hands than Johnson. Thank goodness there were some slightly more rational brains
Is anyone really shocked by how useless this fuckwit is at this point?
Let us hope Sir Anthony releases the evidence behind his ‘extraordinary claim’ which for now appears to be just hearsay being spread to sell more copies of his upcoming book.
I’m surprised the mods have allowed this article to be posted because it’s essentially political commentary which breaks rule 7. There are no facts being reported about here.
She’s just amazingly stupid. Even if you decided to go down that route.. why pick cancer? A condition that is potentially treatable. Not that I would promote it but if you were going to go down that route there are much more obvious conditions e.g. dementia etc where you could argue we have no good treatments, it’s generally in the elderly and all we do is drag out the suck and so you could potentially ask the question why are we even trying? But cancer generally, christ.
The Daily Fail, Torygraph and The S*n would like you to remember that Keir Starmer has said the October budget is going to be horrible, however! It is still worse under Labour!
/s in case anyone is stupid enough to think this is anything but sarcasm
Forget that, Labour are the new bad guys around here!
We could just you know…. Kill the poor.
Has anyone actually run the numbers?
Hoping someone gets the reference.
I want to remember Kwasi Kwateng as well when Liz Truss is mentioned.
[Kwasi Kwateng Official Portrait.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kwasi_Kwarteng_Official_Cabinet_Portrait,_September_2022_(cropped)_2.jpg)
Fuck me, there’s batshit insane and then there’s batshit insane.
That sort of thought process would be almost asking for a coup ffs.
Gosh, she’s only just turning 10? Her reign makes a little bit more sense, in that case.
utterly mad that this absolute fucking moron was ever a minister of state, let alone the fucking PM. Proper shit-for-brains stuff.
Whose mind would even think of that? She is an utter disgrace.
How do people this stupid make it to the top?
Like, I get it. Everyone is stupid in their own way and everyone fucks up. I can excuse a lot of the Tory cronies before as sinister and evil rather than plain stupid.
But this? This is just outright stupid. Like there’s nothing for her to personally gain from this. It’s absolute sheer and utter stupidity at the very peak
I would not let this woman near a toaster let alone any position of power or responsibility. She must have the IQ of a cucumber.
“Have you tried killing all the poor?” Is probably going to go right over her head.
Just when you thought the Tories couldn’t sink any lower
🎵You can suffer, you can die
No treatment at the end of your life
Ooh, see that girl, so obscene
The Tory Cancer Queen🎵
Right, I’m failing to make any logical connections here so please explain to me like I’m five – why the fuck would you do that?
There are very few people I hate, she is one of them. She is a disgusting human being.
Ianucci is right yet again, how can you make satire when real life is just so barmy you can’t out so it.
This shit is absolutely sensationalist hyperbole. She did not “crash the economy”. She caused short term drop in confidence in UK gilts and spiked rates. It’s impact on UK growth and inflation was absolutely minimal
If she had planned that, I suspect she would have had to flee the country – there would be a target on her back.
I think most people are missing something about this story. Yes Truss is incredibly stupid for even considering this but how did she get to a position where there was ever a possibility of this being considered? The Tory party that put her in charge, the media that supported her are still there without any sense of self introspection on if they erred when they installed her as leader.
Yeah ok, I don’t believe that for shit.
Not least because this would have already been leaked if true.
We’re fast heading into 3rd world shithole territory, might as well stop pretending otherwise
But the feminists said that the world should be run by women because they are more empathetic than men.
Kind of insane to think we had this brief moment of madness where Liz Truss became Prime Minister then quickly got turfed out.
Almost like it was just a bad dream
Why on earth would you even consider such a thing? And last time i checked this isn’t a dictatorship so she can’t be the only one to blame.
This used to be satire
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s_4J4uor3JE