Prospect Conference vows to build industrial response to civil service job cuts

Delegates at Prospect National Conference in Bournemouth have condemned the government’s plan to cut 91,000 jobs and vowed to build an industrial response to the proposal. The move came as conference carried an emergency motion on the subject.

Prospect’s Garry Graham speaking at National Conference

Delegates from across the union and different industries spoke in favour of the motion with particular anger reserved for the way the plans have been announced, which came via a story in the Daily Mail.

The Government continues to face a number of challenges which have required increased levels of civil service support – none of those challenges are over.

They include: the repatriation of powers as a result of Brexit, the challenges posed by climate change and the biodiversity crisis, the urgency of improving our energy and food security.

Combined with the need to defend citizens in an increasingly hostile and unstable world, as well as the lessons to be learnt from the pandemic and the need for effective regulation and government policy delivery, there is a clear reason for the increase in job numbers.

The Government has not been able to articulate what it is that government should stop doing.

Prospect deputy general secretary Garry Graham said:

“The Government has decided it wants to cut numbers in the civil service for ideological reasons and plucked this 91,000 figure out of the air. There is no rationale behind it, no plan to get there and they seem to have no idea what services they want to stop providing.

“These cuts will be deeply damaging to the country and the programmes that people rely on are going to have to end. Prospect will be working across its branches to coordinate an industrial response to the plans. The Government must think again before it does terminal damage to a civil service that is the envy of the world.”