Former UK prime minister David Cameron says a text message he sent last year to the finance ministry's top civil servant, which appeared to show advance knowledge of a Bank of England rate cut, was a spelling mistake.
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On March 6 last year Cameron sent the Treasury's Permanent Secretary Tom Scholar a text that included the line: "Never quite understood how rate cuts help a pandemic."
Five days later, the BoE cut rates in an unscheduled emergency move at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I've been rather baffled by this text message because obviously rate cuts are a very appropriate thing to do at a time of difficulty," Cameron told MPs from parliament's Treasury Committee on Thursday.
"I think I'm a victim of spellcheck here - I think it was about a VAT cut... I think I was responding to something that was in the news."
Australian Associated Press
