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    Reform UK to axe 68,000 civil service jobs if they win next general election
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    Reform UK to axe 68,000 civil service jobs if they win next general election

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    40 Comments

    1. trade-da-ting on

      Hasnt each government recently said that they are axing civil service jobs and then found they can’t? I’m not sure I believe Mr Farage here.

    2. TheLimeyLemmon on

      And using the savings to fund 200 high-salary made-up jobs like “Englishness Adjustment Overseer” or some bollocks

    3. unknowntoff on

      And then replace them with political appointees that are loyal to Herr Farage.

      Sound familiar?

    4. Expert_Temporary660 on

      The same fuckers who pushed Brexit which now needs a huge number of civil servants to cut the red tape we now have to deal with.
      Arseholes the lot of them.

    5. Both-Firefighter-668 on

      Adds this to the list of things they will not do if they win an election. My hope is people see the damage they will do to local government in the run up to the election. A taste of what would be to come…. But then they think the man that grifted Brexit lies is ‘man of the people’

    6. PhyllisCaunter on

      If this is what the people want, fine. But Reform need to be honest and outline the things they will stop doing.

    7. no_fooling on

      And those jobs will go to their mates companies at a higher cost to the taxpayer, worse service, and extra cash for the owners to skim off the top for doing nothing.

    8. Ill_Refrigerator_593 on

      I’m sure it’ll be as successful at saving money as their councils are, cut the deficit as much as Truss’ budget (that Farage supported) did & benefit the economy as much as Brexit.

    9. LonelyStranger8467 on

      Governments have been trying to reduce staff and have had staff reduction exercises repeatedly.

      If you think you can just magically find 68,000 jobs to cut while administering your policies then you’ll be in for a shock.

    10. Von_Uber on

      So all the functions will be outsourced to private companies who coincidentally will be mates of Farage.

    11. Ajax_Trees_Again on

      I’m sure that’s a number backed up by solid analysis and costing – not just plucked from thin air

    12. Demoliscio on

      Look at what happened with DOGE, you need to be brain dead to see that and go “yes, let’s do the same”

    13. TheChattyRat on

      I love that if the job losses were in literally any other sector this would seem terrible. Purely spiteful.

    15. DecentManufacturer27 on

      I doubt they will and if they do, it will be a complete failure and they will scramble to rehire them almost immediately.

    16. SableSnail on

      I presume this will go about as well as all the DOGE stuff did across the pond.

      It’s odd too as it’s not like in Southern Europe where the civil service jobs pay way better than the private sector and have way better benefits/conditions etc., the pay in the UK is pretty meh and the pensions aren’t what they were either.

      I actually got offered a job at GORS but didn’t take it as I got a much better offer from the private sector. Plus, in the private sector my salary is set by the market, not by morons like Farage.

    17. Darrenb209 on

      I… what would even be the *point* of that? By civil service statistics that would just reduce it to 2021 levels. They’d have rehired most of them by the time they lost power.

      There’s genuinely a case for civil service reform, people have been trying that for years but even before you get into why Reform would actually push for it this wouldn’t even accomplish what they claim to want.

    20. Kwinza on

      They’ll axe 68000 employees and take on 72000 contractors.

      They’ll then announce how many jobs they’ve cut and how much those people were earning BUT not how much spending is.

    21. EasyCheesecake1 on

      I’m sure it will be another feeble copy of a trump policy. Sack everyone who works in fields I don’t believe in.. science, social services, mental health, environmental services, wildlife, sewage treatment, Surveillance on Russia… Etc.

    22. LordFiresnake on

      “Do you want the system to work even worse than it does already? Vote for us, We’ll deflate the country’s tires and loudly shout over the sound of grinding metal”

    24. TheObrien on

      For the uninitiated amongst you a huge number of those roles will be subject to redundancy payment, I suspect a vast sum of them will be on enhanced terms.. so the bill for this “DOGE” “Government efficiency” will likely be tens if not hundreds of millions… of wasted £££

    25. skeetzmv on

      Will be utterly hilarious trying to watch them run a country’s admin with no fucking staff.

      Absolute morons.

    26. InterestingWin3627 on

      Grifters. They caused Brexit and now they want to do decimate our country. Shills the lot of them.

    29. Shawn_The_Sheep777 on

      Farage was the one who created thousands more civil service jobs due to his wonderful Brexit

    31. Ell2509 on

      It has already been decimated. There will be nothing left if we continue like this. We are disassembling the country our grandparents and great grandparents fought for.

    32. BeardMonk1 on

      Iv said it before and i’ll say it again:

      1) If Reform get in and they want to enact their entire agenda from, mass deportations, enforced integration, updating School curriculum, leaving ECHR, expanded use of Policing and Armed Forces etc etc what they are actaully going to need is to expand the number people who will make those things possible. I.e. The Civil Service

      2) Most people don’t really know what the civil service does or entails and the massive range of services that fall under its banner

      3) Sacking lots of Civil Servant will be horrifically expensive to the taxpayer unless Reform intend to take years rewriting the laws, rules and working through all the challenges that would need to be fought. And who would they need for that? The Civil Service lol.

      What will happen is in order to meet a headline or target they will be forced to give many of us the best of the redundancy packages so we go quickly. That works out at roughly 2 years salary + incentives for anyone who has reasonable experience (its 1 month per year of service + incentives). Then it will all fall apart. Then those people will come back again either as contractors at 3x the salary OR as per civil servants again after the contractual period in the redundancy T&C’s are over.

      So it will be a poo-cake whichever way you view it.

    33. Ranjes_Falanges on

      The Daily Mail told me the civil servants are woke, and as a Brexit voter I simply don’t have the brainpower to think otherwise. Don’t you dare call me stupid though: if you do, it means my moronic, ignorant voting choices are actually your fault!

    35. EntertainmentSad3174 on

      Removing government employees isn’t just about adding the number up to 68,000 to make a headline news.

      For example, let’s say remove X number of Home Office staff, an immediate impact is slower review process of asylum seeker cases. Then people will complain about too many asylum seekers occupying the hotels in their towns.

      What’s the cost, how to do it, and more importantly has the party got the capability of delivering it. You can hate civil servants as much as you like but at the end of the day somebody in government needs to do the jobs if otherwise the general public will only suffer more. Less services, slower responses, spending hours and hours on your phone listening to songs or talking to robots, that’s what you will get. Like Brexit, yes, you take back control, yes. But, at what cost? Are you happy now to pay all the costs?

    36. knitscones on

      Oh good!

      More chaos is just what U.K. needs to stop anymore bad Brexit stories!

      Right out of the Trump playbook!,

    37. IdiotAnnihilator on

      Axe government jobs. Replace with private sector consultancies and contractors at 3x rate of government employees. Decline public services to enrage the UK population to sign up to more fascist bullshit (corporations) Profit!

    38. goonercaIIum on

      For context, headcount in the civil service by year:

      June 2025: 551,000 (FTE)
      2024: Around 515,000
      2022: 510,080 (Headcount)
      2021: Approximately 475,000
      2020: ~426,000
      2019: ~416,000
      2016 (June): ~384,230 (Lowest since WWII)
      2010: ~484,000
      2004: ~534,000 (Peak before spending reviews)

      Probably does sit a little high, but areas like dealing with the asylum backlog really need FTEs to actually solve the problem rather Han kicking the can.

    40. Darksky121 on

      I’d be very interested to hear from Reform supporters who work in the Civil service. Are they still going to support Reform when it’s not the immigrants who will be taking away their jobs.