Tory leadership hopeful Liz Truss’s proposal to save billions with Civil Service cuts would lead to reduced pay for nurses and teachers, according to an expert.
Institute for Government programme director Alex Thomas said the £8.8 billion proposed for savings from regional pay bargaining would not come from Whitehall.
“The whole Civil Service pay bill is only about £9 billion,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“You’re not going to reduce the Civil Service pay bill to £200 million unless you pretty radically reshape the state.
“I know she wants to be radical but possibly not quite that much, so it’s going to come from the wider public sector, it’s going to come from nurses and teachers and local authorities.”
He argued the “complicated and controversial” move would mean nurses and teachers being paid less or receiving slower pay rises than others, adding: “This is not war on Whitehall, it’s more like war on Workington.”
