Unions warn about effect on vital services after Chancellor confirms job cuts
FDA general secretary Dave Penman said a 10% cut in the entire salary bill of the Civil Service could mean up to 50,000 jobs may be cut.
Unions have warned that as many as 50,000 people could lose their jobs and vital services could deteriorate after Rachel Reeves confirmed plans to cut Civil Service running costs by 15%.
The Chancellor said Labour was looking to cut back the Civil Service, which she said had swelled during the Covid-19 pandemic, by slashing its “back office functions, the administrative and bureaucracy functions” by the end of this parliament.
The leader of the biggest civil service union said any cuts will hit frontline services after years of underfunding by previous Conservative governments.
Public and Commercial Services union general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “The impact of making cuts will not only disadvantage our members but the public we serve and the services they rely on.
“We’ve heard this before under Gordon Brown when cuts were made to backroom staff and consequences of that was chaos.”
The Chancellor told Sky News she was “confident” Civil Service numbers could be reduced by 10,000, but one union chief said the cuts could lead to some 50,000 staff being let go.
FDA general secretary Dave Penman told ITV: “We’re talking about something that’s close to 10% of the entire salary bill of the Civil Service over the next three to four years.
“The Civil Service is about half a million staff. So that could be up to 50,000 staff who would go.”
Mike Clancy, general secretary of Prospect, said there must be “a realistic assessment of what the Civil Service doesn’t do in future as a result of these cuts”.
“Public servants in both ‘back office’ and ‘front line’ roles will both be critical to delivering on the Government’s missions, and the Government must recognise that many civil servants are working in ‘front line’ roles,” he said.
