Jacob Rees-Mogg has defended plans to axe 91,000 civil service jobs and pledged to move more staff from London to the North East.
The Tory minister, who met with local civil servants on a visit to Newcastle on Thursday, said the Government wanted to “get back to a proper level of efficiency” as it aims to cut staffing back to 2016 levels over the next three years. The plan to cut one in five civil service jobs has prompted talk of strike action from the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, while there have also been warnings that it will worsen backlogs in frontline services including the Passport Office and DVLA.
Responding to the criticism, Mr Rees-Mogg told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Reducing by 91,000 simply gets us back to where we were in 2016. In 2016 the DVLA was working perfectly well and the Passport Office was working perfectly well. It is making sure the systems get back to a proper level of efficiency.
