Friday 13 May 2022 09:38 AM Jacob Rees-Mogg says Boris's brutal cull of 91,000 Civil Service jobs to save ... trends now
Boris Johnson's plan to brutally cull a fifth of Civil Service jobs will work because Brexit is done and extra staff brought in during the aftermath are no longer required, a senior minister claimed today.
Jacob Rees-Mogg said the PM's decision to axe 91,000 posts within three years would simply take Whitehall numbers back to their pre 2016 levels, after they were swollen by the EU departure and Covid.
The Brexit Opportunities Minister spoke out as unions reacted with fury to the proposal to use public sector job cuts to save £3.5billion and give ministers leeway to bring in tax cuts for millions of UK families struggling with the cost of living.
The Prime Minister used a 'cost of living' Cabinet meeting in the Midlands yesterday to order his top team to redouble their efforts to ease the financial pressure on struggling families. He claimed the Civil service had become 'swollen' during the pandemic.
Ministers were given one month to come up with plans to cut the size of the Civil Service by 91,000 – almost a fifth of the current total. The changes will come in over the next three years.
Mr Rees-Mogg used a media round of interviews to defend the move and vow to move even faster within his own Cabinet Office department
He told Sky News: 'I know it sounds eye-catching but it's just getting back to the civil service we had in 2016... since then we've had to take on people for specific tasks.
'So dealing with the aftermath of Brexit and dealing with Covid, so there's been a reason for that increase, but we're now trying to get back to normal.'
Mr Johnson last night told the Daily Mail: 'We have got to cut the cost of government to reduce the cost of living.'
And he suggested the billions saved could be ploughed into tax cuts, saying: 'Every pound the Government pre-empts from the taxpayer is money they can spend on their own priorities, on their own lives.'
From L to R: Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi, International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Health Secretary Sajid Javid, Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak during a regional cabinet meeting at Middleport Pottery in Stoke on Trent on Thursday
Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg arrives to attend the Cabinet meeting on Thursday
A picture from Jacob Rees-Mogg showing an empty ministry office as civil servants continue to work from home
Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union for civil and public service workers, accused the Government of 'picking a number out of the air'.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme that part of civil servants' jobs was to look at efficiency.
'They've already committed to 5 per cent cuts in their budgets as part of the spending review,' he said.
'That kind of ongoing efficiency is what the civil service does all the time. But if you're going to just simply pluck a figure out of the air and say it's now 90,000 because there's a convenient point in time where we liked the number, that's not a serious way to look at what does a government want to do and how can it deliver that in the most effective and efficient way.'
The PM's chief of staff, Steve Barclay, is also investigating plans to use new technology, including artificial intelligence systems, to improve efficiency at struggling agencies such as the Passport Office and DVLA.
Mr Johnson said the public 'deserve better' from organisations which have allowed huge backlogs to build up.
And he remains convinced of the need to get more officials back at their desks, adding: 'We need to get back into the habit of getting into the office, getting into the workplace.
'There will be lots of people who disagree with
