Prospect responds to Reform UK’s Plan for cuts to the Civil Service

Following reports in The Telegraph that Reform UK intends to slash civil service jobs, Prospect has warned that the proposals are unrealistic, damaging, and risk undermining our public services.

Prospect General Secretary Mike Clancy said: 

“Reform is the latest political party to use hardworking civil servants as convenient scapegoats, blaming them for the country’s problems knowing that they are unable to respond.

“The truth is that, as they are finding out in local government, it is easy to promise big cost savings but the reality is that cutting public servants means damaging the delivery of the services the public rely on. 

“Danny Kruger also claims that this is about saving money at the same time as he wants to bring more expensive private sector expertise into government – the current experience is that the civil service is losing expertise to the private sector because of a lack of competitiveness on pay, these proposals simply do not engage with the reality.

“The civil service is already overstretched, partly because of the impact of the bad Brexit deal that Reform championed. Civil servants will serve whichever party is in government but these proposals show that, far from being a party ready for government, Reform is still in denial about the fundamental reality of governing a modern country.”