Declaring war on civil servants while demanding they keep quiet is not a recipe for good government

Reform UK’s Danny Kruger has told the Financial Times (£) that if they win power they will cut the civil service by 50%.

He also intimated that civil servants were responsible for getting in the way of elected governments delivering their agenda saying he was “prepared to counter any ‘sabotage or resistance’ to its government programme”.

Mike Clancy, General Secretary of Prospect, said:

“Reform’s plan for government appears to involve declaring war on their own civil servants, while expecting them to keep quiet and not point any of the obvious flaws in their half-baked plans.

“Cuts on this level would result in fewer specialist staff delivering vital services the public depends on, whether that is monitoring pollution in rivers, keeping us safe from cyber and biological weapons, or helping farmers deal with disease outbreaks.

“The idea that the government could sack half of all civil servants while continuing to function effectively is clearly completely delusional – in that sense it is in keeping with this party’s other policy ideas.”