With the Chancellor’s Spring Statement savings predicated on cutting a whole tranche of civil servants, James Cleverly asks how we can have any confidence that the Government will be able to stand up to the civil service unions.

Mr James Cleverly (Braintree) (Con)

The Transport Secretary failed to stand up to the transport unions, the Health and Social Care Secretary failed to stand up to the health unions, and the Work and Pensions Secretary failed to stand up to the Back Benchers of her own party. The Chancellor’s savings are predicated on getting rid of a whole tranche of civil servants. How can we have any confidence that she or the Prime Minister will stand up to the civil service unions?

The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Rachel Reeves)

Today, as part of the transformation fund, we have set aside £150 million next year for redundancy costs for a voluntary exit settlement, which shows how serious we are about reducing the size of the civil service, after it increased to record levels under the Conservative party.

Hansard