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Kemi Badenoch has sparked backlash after joking 50,000 civil servants were so bad at their jobs they should be jailed, claiming they undermine ministers and leak official secrets.
Speaking on the fringes of the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, Ms Badenoch drew laughter from the audience as she said five to 10 per cent of government department staff should be in prison.
In a stinging attack on the workforce, she described some as “very, very bad”.
With more than 500,000 people employed full time in the civil service as of March 2024, five to 10 per cent would amount to between 25,000 to 50,000 staff members.
In response, a spokesperson for the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union - the largest trade union representing civil servants in the UK - accused the Tory leadership contender of continuing a “personal feud” after she was accused of bullying members of staff earlier this year, claims she dismissed.
At the event hosted by The Spectator magazine, Ms Badenoch said: “I think that civil servants are like everybody else. They come in to do a job and I would say about 10 per cent of them are absolutely magnificent.
“The trick to being a good minister is to find the good ones quickly, bring them close and try and get the bad ones out of your department as quickly as possible.”
“There is about 5 per cent to 10 per cent of them who are very, very bad. You know, ‘should be in prison’ bad”, she added.
“Leaking official secrets, undermining their ministers … agitating. I had some of it in my department, usually union-led, but most of them actually want to do a good job. And the good ones are very frustrated by the bad ones”.
Responding to her remarks, the PCS spokesperson said: “Kemi Badenoch just can’t let it lie, can she? When she was in power she was accused of bullying civil servants.
“Now she’s out of power she’s continuing her personal feud against them, many of whom are our members.
“This is a below the belt attack on hard-working civil servants who can’t answer back.
“We won’t stand for our members being used as vote fodder for the Tory Party leadership election.
“Maybe Badenoch should reflect on her words, the way she treats civil servants and why the Tories lost the General Election.”
In July, the former Cabinet minister was alleged to have created an intimidating atmosphere at the Department of Business and Trade in a report by the Guardian newspaper.
Sources claimed Ms Badenoch was responsible for behaviour that traumatised staff, leading at least three of them to leave their jobs in the department.
But she dismissed the accusations as “smears”, claiming they originated from “former staff who I sacked after they were accused of bullying behaviour, lying about other colleagues to cover up their own failures and general gross incompetence.”
