Boris Johnson’s civil service job cuts are ambitious – and ideological

Pedestrians in Whitehall. The prime minister is understood to have given the cabinet the task of cutting civil service staff by a fifth. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

In Stoke on Thursday to discuss the cost of living crisis, Boris Johnson told his cabinet: “Folks, we’re going to get through this … jobs, jobs, jobs is the answer.” Just hours later, it emerged that almost one in five civil servants are set to lose theirs.

Rishi Sunak’s spending review last October had already set an aim of returning to 2019-20 levels of Whitehall staffing – pre-pandemic levels – by 2025; but this new pledge would see the civil service back to its pre-Brexit size.