The Prime Minister Boris Johnson told his Cabinet that he wants cut around 90,000 Civil Service jobs which will cut the workforce by around a fifth.
The move could free up around £3.5bn which will provide the government with more money to ease up the cost of living through tax cuts.
Johnson told the Daily Mail, “We have got to cut the cost of government to reduce the cost of living.”
He suggested the billions of pounds saved could be used for tax cuts, he said, “Every pound the government pre-empts from the taxpayer is money they can spend on their own priorities, on their own lives.”
He told the Mail that the civil service has become “swollen” since the pandemic and a recruitment freeze across Whitehall will start soon.
FDA general secretary Dave Penman said the expansion of Whitehall since 2016 was needed to “deal with the consequences of two unprecedented events – Brexit and the Covid pandemic.”
“To govern is to choose and ultimately this government can decide to cut the civil service back to 2016 levels, but it will also then have to choose what the reduced civil service will no longer have the capacity to do.
“Will they affect passports, borders or health?’ he added.
He continued, “Without an accompanying strategy, these cuts appear more like a continuation of the government’s civil service culture wars, or even worse, ill-thought out, rushed job slashes that won’t lead to a more cost-effective government.”
A Labour Party spokesman said, “Instead of implementing an emergency budget they have chosen to let down working people once again through pointless rhetoric and lack of action.”
A government spokeswoman said, “the public rightly expect their government to lead by example and run as efficiently as possible’ as the nation faces rising costs.”
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