Government could axe 10,000 civil service jobs

Ministers will not set an arbitrary cap on the number of civil servants amid reports more than 10,000 jobs could be lost as the result of a spending squeeze.

- DAVID HUGHES

Sir Keir Starmer has been warned by a trade union not to impose “blunt headcount targets” for the size of the civil service but government sources insisted there would be no set limit, although the number “cannot keep growing”.

Departments have been ordered to find 5 per cent “efficiency savings” as part of Rachel Reeves’s spending review, potentially putting jobs at risk.

There are 513,000 full-time civil servants in central government, up sharply from a recent low of about 380,000 in 2016. The Tories went into the general election promising to reduce numbers by 70,000 to fund extra defence spending.

Any reduction under Labour would be more modest, with The Guardian reporting more than 10,000 jobs could be lost.