Liz Truss considered scrapping cancer treatment on the NHS as she desperately tried to repair the economic damage caused by the disastrous mini-Budget, a new book reportedly claims.
According to The Independent, aides thought the former prime minister had “lost the plot” when they heard the plan.
The claims - which were denied by a spokesman for Britain’s shortest-serving PM - are contained in ‘Truss At 10 - How Not To Be A Prime Minister’, by acclaimed author Sir Anthony Seldon.
The book says: “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.”
Truss lasted just 49 days as PM before being ousted by her MPs in the wake of the financial chaos which followed her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, announcing £45 billion-worth of unfunded spending cuts.
According to the book, one of Truss’s advisers, Alex Boyd, was told “they’re looking at stopping cancer treatment on the NHS” as a way of trying to plug the financial black hole.
Boyd reportedly replied: “Is she being serious?”
Asked about the claims, Kwarteng told the newspaper: “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.”
A spokesman for Truss said: “It is completely untrue that she ever considered it.”
Truss, who lost her previously-safe Tory seat at the general election, has previously blamed the “deep state” for her downfall.
Speaking in America in February, she said: “They sabotaged my efforts in Britain to cut taxes, reduce the size of government and restore democratic accountability.”