Liz Truss is under fire today for her proposals for a “war on Whitehall waste,” as conservative opponents have claimed it could result in millions of employees losing their jobs and hand the Tories a crushing defeat in the next general election.
Last night, the Foreign Secretary unveiled proposals to eliminate national pay scales for Civil Service positions and replace them with compensation that match local rates in an effort to save up to £11 billion.
But she claimed that the introduction of regional pay arrangements for all public sector employees was responsible for almost £8.8 billion of the savings.
Her team assured the Times that the adjustments would only apply to new hires, but supporters of Rishi Sunak, a candidate for the leadership position, questioned if this was even feasible.
The Red Wall seats that the party won from Labour in the North and the Midlands at the previous election with pledges of leveling-up at a time of escalating cost-of-living concerns drew criticism as well.
Ben Houchen, the emerging star of the party and mayor of Tees Valley, declared: “There is absolutely no way you can do this without a major pay cut for 5.5 million people outside London, including nurses, police officers, and our military services.”
According to Liz Truss’ campaign, their savings goal can only be met “if the system were to be adopted for all public sector personnel.”
This is a ticking time bomb planted by the Truss campaign, and it will go off just before the next general election.
North Dorset’s Simon Hoare told Politics Home that the proposal is “the very antithesis of one nation Conservatism,” “politically suicidal,” and “economically illiterate.” Northern MPs Richard Holden and Jacob Young urged Ms. Truss to abandon the idea.
The leveling-up programme, in his words, “drives a coach and horses through it; it’s just foolishness.”
The adjustments, according to Truss’s team, would guarantee that compensation appropriately reflects where public workers work and prevent local firms from being priced out of the labour market, they claim.
“As Prime Minister, I will lead a smaller, more effective, and more focused Whitehall that prioritises the issues that truly concern the public and is laser-focused on frontline services,” Ms. Truss said.
Whitehall has an excessive amount of bureaucracy and outdated groupthink.
Whitehall has an excessive amount of bureaucracy and outdated groupthink.
If I win the election, I will put an end to that and lead a government that ruthlessly concentrates on delivering for the British people while providing value to the nation’s hard-working taxpayers.
During my tenure in government, I have proven that I am willing to challenge Whitehall orthodoxy and accomplish goals.
“The British people can rely on me to keep my word and take quick action to address the cost of living.”
A significant civil service union responded angrily to her proposals and vowed to fight them “every step of the way.”
The Today programme on BBC Radio 4 quoted Institute for Government programme director Alex Thomas as saying, “The whole Civil Service pay bill is only about £9 billion.”
You cannot cut the Civil Service pay bill to £200 million without substantially altering the state.
It will come from the larger public sector, from nurses, teachers, and local governments because I know she wants to be radical but maybe not quite that much.
The Truss campaign claimed that the regional cost of living is not taken into account when negotiating Civil Service pay because it takes place at the national level.
Regional boards can be used to align civil servant compensation with the locations in which they actually operate, saving the taxpayers billions of dollars while also preventing private companies from being “pushed out” by higher public sector wages.
By relocating more civil officials outside of London, the savings might be increased.
Reducing the average Civil Service leave entitlement from 27 days to the 25 days found in the manufacturing and private services sectors would save about £2 billion.
There are at least 326 of these positions in government ministries, according to Ms. Truss’ campaign, so eliminating them would save the government almost £12 million a year.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, who supported the plans today, claimed that the positions were created “by the awake for the woke.”
The Truss campaign claimed that banning facility time, which allows trade union representatives to take paid time off to focus on union business, as well as permitting the use of grants, offices, and equipment, could save up to £137 million.
Attempting to implement Ms. Truss’s package of measures from No. 10 is certain to encounter fierce opposition from the Civil Service unions.
‘Liz is a low-tax, small-state Conservative with a mistrust of big government,’ a campaign source claimed.
She will reorganise Whitehall and take the drastic measures necessary to address the waste and inefficiencies at the core of the government.
She will ensure that each and every official is capable of carrying out the commitments stated in the 2019 manifesto and the issues that the general public finds important.
Liz Truss will encounter opposition at every turn if she attempts to move on with these measures after being elected, according to Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS union.
“Civil servants are the hard-working people who keep the country operating, day in and day out, and they deserve respect,” the statement goes.
“They are not a political tool to be used and abused for one person’s ambition.”
Liz Truss has been disparaging her own government’s track record for the past three weeks, according to Mike Clancy, general secretary of Prospect union.
She intends to continue producing the same economically ignorant and offensive ideological rubbish that her Government has been churning out in previous years, judging by this pointless attempt to gain attention favourable to her selectorate.
Angela Rayner, the deputy leader of Labour, denounced Ms. Truss’s proposals, stating that she was “stuck in the past, waging old fights, and pledging a race to the bottom on public sector workers’ wages and rights.”
Her “tailored” compensation plans would reduce northerners’ pay and widen the already-existing disparity.
The government’s pledge to levelling up has been abandoned.