Rachel Reeves was accused by Trevor Phillips of not “being entirely straight” with the public over the true impact of her cuts to public spending this morning.
The chancellor confirmed today that she wants to reduce government running costs by 15%, and slash 10,000 civil service jobs.
It comes ahead of her Spring Statement on Wednesday where she is set to announce further cuts for some government departments.
It’s part of her bid to grow the economy while also not breaching her own fiscal rules on borrowing for day-to-day spending.
Despite these gloomy updates, the chancellor has insisted there would be “real-term spending increases” over the course of this parliament.
So on Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, the presenter said to Reeves: “It feels like what you want to do is to say is, it’s all going to be tough, but actually, there’s not going to be too much pain for anybody.
“It just feels like you’re not being entirely straight with us!”
Alluding to the quango which was just scrapped, Reeves replied: “Well, if you work for NHS England, a lot of those jobs will go.
“But if you work on the frontline of public services, we’re going to put money in there.
“Because of the difficult decisions I took on taxation, we were able to put more than £20 billion into the NHS – that’s the priorities of this government those are the priorities of the British people and we are delivering against them.
“Are we going to do everything the same? No, we are not!
“We are going to change how government works. We are going to rewire the state and put money into priorities, and not just keep on doing what the previous government did.”
Asked how many people were going to lose their jobs with this next round of cuts, Reeves confirmed there would be a 10 to 15% reduction in the civil service’s admin budget, including travel funds, consultancy and the communication budget.
“You can’t say this is going to be pain-free,” Phillips replied.
“No, what I am saying is that is going to deliver better public services,” Reeves said.
She also claimed civil service numbers need to be cut back after Covid, considering the world has now changed, adding: “I don’t want money spent on bureaucracy and back office functions.”
Reeves has already slashed £5bn from the welfare budget, reduced eligibility for the winter fuel allowance and increased national insurance contributions for businesses since getting into office.
The chancellor admitted she is “not satisfied with the numbers that we are seeing at the moment” with the UK’s lacklustre economic growth, after it unexpectedly shrank by 0.1% in January.
However, she told Sky News: “It’s not possible within just a few months to reverse more than a decade of economic stagnation, but we are making the changes necessary to get Britain building again, to bring money into the economy.”
#Trevor #Phillips #Grills #Chancellor #Reeves #Civil #Service #Cuts
Leave a Reply