No mandate for ‘reckless plans’


The Prospect civil service union last month warned that the new prime minister — Rishi Sunak won the latest Tory leadership race days later — will have had no say in “reckless plans” to slash services and no mandate from the public to carry them out.


It said departments were reportedly being asked to outline tens of billions of pounds of spending cuts to the Office for Budget Responsibility by 21 October, the day after Liz Truss resigned as prime minister and ahead of the Conservative leadership election. 


“The public will be left fearing for the future of their services, and public servants are being set up to pay the price for a disaster made entirely in Downing Street,” said Prospect general secretary Mike Clancy. 


In September, a joint letter from the TUC and 18 unions to Truss and her then chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng made clear that since 2010, hospitals, schools, councils, care homes, prisons and other essential services “have been forced to absorb savage spending cuts”. And with bills rising every month, there is now even less money for services.


Meanwhile nurses, teachers, firefighters and millions of other key workers have seen their living standards decimated with over a decade of pay cuts and wage freezes, and staff are quitting in droves. 


Rejecting another “crippling round of austerity this November”, they warned that unions “will not sit by and allow the government to impoverish public services”.