Boris Johnson has tasked ministers with cutting around 90,000 Civil Service jobs to free up cash for measures to ease the cost-of-living crisis with possible tax cuts. The Prime Minister was understood to have told his Cabinet on Thursday that the service should be cut by a fifth.
Mr Johnson made the demand during an away day with ministers in Stoke-on-Trent as his Government comes under intense pressure to ease the pain of soaring prices. But the FDA civil servants union warned the “ill thought out” proposal would not lead to a more cost-effective Government and could have impacts on passport processing, borders and health.
Sources familiar with Mr Johnson’s Cabinet conversation said he told ministers to return the Civil Service to its 2016 levels in the coming years. It was said its numbers have grown by 2016 since then to 475,000 full-time equivalent jobs.
