United Kingdom Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has ordered 90,000 Public Service job cuts with the money saved to be used to ease the cost of living crisis.
Mr Johnson has tasked his Cabinet Ministers with cutting Government staff by a fifth, telling them every bit of cash saved on Government spending could be better used elsewhere.
In an interview with the Daily Mail newspaper, the Prime Minister hinted at future tax cuts, suggesting the money saved by reducing Public Service numbers could help fund such measures.
Ministers are to have a month to put together proposals for how to achieve this within their Departments.
A Government spokesperson said Mr Johnson and his Ministers recognised that the Public Service “does an outstanding job delivering for the public and driving progress on the Government’s priorities”.
“When people and businesses across the country are facing rising costs, the public rightly expect their Government to lead by example and run as efficiently as possible,” the spokesperson said.
The news came on the same day that figures showed the UK’s economy had contracted in March, with the spectre of a recession looming.
General Secretary of the FDA union, covering senior Public Servants, Dave Penman said with those kinds of cuts the Government needed to decide on what the Public Service would stop doing.
“Unless they’ve got a serious plan, it’s either another headline-grabbing stunt or a reckless slash-and-burn to public services without a thought or care about the consequences,” Mr Penman said.
London, 14 May 2022
