There appears to be confusion at the top of government over proposed cuts to the civil service, as a minister has insisted there are no targets for redundancies – despite the chancellor saying just one day earlier that 10,000 jobs would be lost.
Rachel Reeves has ordered mandarins to slash 15 per cent from departmental administrative budgets by 2029-30 – saving an estimated £2.2bn a year – and pledged that the money will be redirected to “frontline” services.
