References to Liz Truss's mini-budget 'disaster' removed from King's Speech document

Text describing Liz Truss's mini-budget as a "disaster" has been removed from government documents after the former PM complained the civil service had breached impartiality rules.

Ms Truss complained that references to the “mistakes” of her economic policy, which unleashed chaos in the markets, tanked the pound and caused mortgage rates to skyrocket, were “untrue political attacks”.

Alongside the speech, a briefing document outlining more details about the new laws was published on the government website.

A spokesperson for the Cabinet Office said Simon Case, the head of the civil service, had replied to Ms Truss and ordered that the references be removed.

Ms Truss had written to Mr Case complaining that the language around her actions was "more evidence of a lack of civil service impartiality."

In the letter, Ms Truss urged him to “urgently investigate how such material came to be included in this document, ensure suitable admonishment for those responsible and the immediate removal of such political material from the version of the document on gov.uk”.

Ms Truss, who is no longer an MP after suffering a crushing defeat in her Norfolk constituency in the general election, said: “It has been brought to my attention that the King’s Speech background briefing notes published today and available online contain repeated references personally to me and actions undertaken by my government in the context of a political attack.

“Not only is what is stated in the document untrue, making no reference to the LDI crisis precipitated by the Bank of England’s regulatory failures; but I regard it as a flagrant breach of the civil service code since such personal and political attacks have no place in a document prepared by civil servants – an error made all the more egregious when the attack is allowed to masquerade in the document among ‘key facts’.”

The briefing document had referred to the “disaster” of Ms Truss’s radical tax-cutting agenda and cited 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 tax and spend would be subject to an independent assessment by the Treasury watchdog.

This would be introduced “to ensure that the mistakes of Liz Truss ‘mini budget’ cannot be repeated”, the briefing said.

Since being ejected from Number 10 after just 49 days in office – making her Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister – Ms Truss has conceded her plan to quickly abolish the 45p top rate of tax went too far, but otherwise defended her failed bid to boost growth.

Ms Truss has been at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in the US this week supporting Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

On Monday she shared a photo outside of the convention centre announcing her arrival.

In a post on X, Ms Truss wrote: "Great to be at @RNC in Milwaukee seeing President Trump get nominated. The leadership the West needs."

She is expected to speak at the event on Wednesday.

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