Liz Truss has spoken up once again about her name appearing in an official briefing document this week, claiming this should be a “matter of deep concern to the British public”.
The former PM lodged an official complaint on Wednesday with the country’s most senior civil servant, Simon Case, after she was mentioned three times in briefing documents published for the King’s Speech.
Her “disastrous” mini-Budget was referenced repeatedly in the notes, which still are available on the official government website.
Case has since directed officials to remove the Truss’s name.
But less than 24 hours later, the ex-PM published yet another letter asking him to investigate further about how her name appeared in the official documents, with eight follow-up questions.
She asked: “Have you opened an investigation into how this happened?
“Who was the senior civil servant who gave final sign-off to the document?
“How many other civil servants had sight of the errant pages before they went to press?”
She also asked if there was a “breach of the Civil Service code” by mentioning her name and if any civil servants found to be responsible would be held to account.
“How many physical copies of the errant document were printed and have you made efforts to recover and pulp unissued copies of it?” Truss added.
She also asked if the opinion of a think tank attacking a politician could be regarded as a “key fact” in a document, and added: “Will you share the conclusions of whatever investigation you are undertaking?”
Truss said she is “very disturbing” her name made it into the Civil Service document, and “impugned my name without evidence”.
She continued: “That not a single person who drafted, edited, proofed or signed off so significant a document saw fit to challenge the slurs against me would only go to suggest that there is a settled view in Whitehall which accepts the narrative of my political opponents without challenge.
“This should be a matter of deep concern to the British public.”
The Civil Service have questions to answer ???? pic.twitter.com/a2k8bWU6np
— Liz Truss (@trussliz) July 18, 2024
All mentions of Truss in the briefing notes appear to have been pulled after she complained yesterday.
The online documents previously said Labour were planning on rolling out a Budget Responsibility Bill which would “ensure that the mistakes of Liz Truss min-Budget cannot repeated” with a “fiscal lock”.
Another reference said: “The fiscal lock is intended to capture and prevent those announcements that could resemble the disastrous mini-Budget.”
The final one said: “The Institute for Government have said that ’Rachel Reeves has made welcome moves to improve fiscal policy making – Liz Truss’s autumn mini-Budget is a lesson in how not to do fiscal policy.”
Truss lost her seat in the general election as part of the humiliating Tory defeat.
She has since flown to the US to endorse Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for the upcoming presidential election.
