Liz Truss called for patients to be charged for seeing their GP

Her recommendation for cutting £28bn in a single year included introducing user charges to see a GP

Liz Truss called for patients to be charged to see their GP, a 2009 document she penned has revealed.

In a 44-page document that she co-authored in 2009 when Ms Truss was the deputy director of Reform think tank, she also called for doctors’ pay to be cut down by 10 per cent.

The document, titled “Back to Black” was written when Labour was in power.

Talk TV’s ‘The News Desk’ reported on Thursday that the Tory frontrunner also wanted to abolish the universal child benefit, according to the document. She wanted to significantly reduce government spending.

Reform in 2008 argued that “the economic situation was far worse than the government would admit” and the report — penned by six authors including Ms Truss — argued that the economy was “weighed down by excessive debt.” The research showed that “the public finances were dire, and the Treasury’s forecasts were unrealistic.”

Its recommendations for cutting £28bn in a single year included introducing user charges to see a GP, cutting the pay of hospital “registrars, consultants, GPs and managers” by 10 per cent, and scrapping “pensioner gimmicks, such as the winter fuel allowance”.

According to the document, the authors suggest that “user charges should be introduced and there should be greater reliance upon other health professionals … for treating less serious ailments”.

It adds: “Reduce the pay of doctors and NHS managers by 10 per cent.” And that “abolish universal child benefit. Instead, child benefits should be targeted on families on low incomes.”

A spokesperson for Ms Truss was quoted as saying that “co-authoring a document does not mean that someone supports every proposal put forward. Liz is focused on her bold economic plan to boost growth, cut taxes and put money back into hardworking people’s pockets”.

In fact, iNews’s Paul Waugh reported on the “Back to Black” paper in January this year. The 44-page document warned that “the UK has nurtured a triffid of public spending that cannot be controlled just by lopping off a few outer leaves”.

The document also proposed axing “inappropriate defence projects” such as the planned new aircraft carriers and Typhoon jet and introducing market rates for interest on student loans.