Union leaders have expressed new angst at Boris Johnson’s intent to cut 91,000 civil service jobs as they warned the scheduled cuts would leave Whitehall unable to cope with its post-Brexit workload.
The Prime Minister recently ordered ministers and senior officials to lower the civil service to the size it was in 2016.
In the aftermath of the EU referendum, the number of civil service positions ballooned greatly due to both Brexit and the COVID pandemic.
Boris Johnson last week wrote to all civil servants to apologise for the concern and uncertainty being caused by the suggested job cuts, but he supported his plans to slim down Whitehall over the next three years by insisting there was no longer a requirement for the State to have the same colossal presence in people’s lives.
The Prime Minister is now encountering fresh resistance from union bosses who are warning Boris Johnson’s plans will leave the civil service smaller, close to the size of the UK population, than at any time in recent history.
Figures from the TUC, as noted by a newspaper outlet, demonstrate that for every 10,000 UK citizens, the number of civil servants dropped from 76 in 2010, when the Tories first came to power, to 59 in 2016.
By last year, that had increased to 70 for every 10,000 UK citizens as civil service staff numbers rose due to Brexit and COVID.
The TUC warned that, under the Prime Minister’s plans to slash 91,000 jobs, the number of civil servants would fall to a new low of 56 per 10,000 by 2025.
There are presently 485,000 civil servants in the United Kingdom.
In June 2016, when the EU referendum took place, there were 384,000 civil servants, the smallest number since the Second World War.
Union leaders warned the planned cuts would leave Whitehall unable to deal with its new post-Brexit role in areas such as immigration, trade and farming.
Steven Littlewood, the assistant general secretary FDA union, told the newspaper that given the new responsibilities the government has post- Brexit for areas like borders, customs and agriculture, it’s impossible to see how it can provide the service it currently is with the proposed job losses.
‘The government needs to be honest about what services it would cut if it reduces numbers.’
All you have to do is take a good look around to see what a mess this country is in. Pigs are being slaughtered without going into the food chain, crops rotting, airports are a mess, ports are a mess, and the NHS is a mess. The Government created all of this, and it needs fixing, not made worse.
Everything that Boris Johnson touches crumbles, and it’s time that we had a leader that actually knows about business and community, and the only time that the Tory sycophants aren’t complaining and whining is when they’re delighting in the misery of others, and from Partygate it’s pretty apparent that the only one thing that our government do, and that’s to organise a booze-up, and of course, they need to sack the smaller folk so that the wealthier folk can keep their big salaries plus perks.
Of course, Brexit was supposed to solve most of our problems, but what our Government pledged was mostly lies, and Boris Johnson is an inept clown, who seems to spend most of his time drinking it up and chasing women, perhaps he’s the one that should be sacked.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 