LIZ Truss is fighting weakened Boris Johnson’s attempts to slash the bloated civil service, HOAR can reveal.
Asked to cut 900 staff, the Foreign Secretary is instead demanding an extra £100million to hire 1,000 more officials.
The potential leadership contender has spent years campaigning for lower taxes and recently attacked ministers for “inexorably growing the size of the state”.
But in a fiery letter seen by HOAR, the top Tory rejects orders to reduce her department’s headcount by 5 per cent – and demands a 1 per cent increase instead.
She said anything less would hamper the government’s ability to “rise to the international challenges the UK now faces.”
And she argues a similar hike should be given to Defence and spy agencies.
But her demand flies directly in the face of calls from the PM to all Cabinet ministers to reduce the size of the state, setting up a major rift.
SLASHING THE SIZE OF THE STATE
Ministers have been ordered to reduce the 475,000 strong civil service by 91,000 jobs – taking it back to 2016 levels.
Last month No10 said: “It’s right that the public would expect the government to make sure we are spending taxpayers’ money as efficiently as possible.”
But confronted by HOAR about her private letter a source close to Truss said yesterday: “In an increasingly uncertain world – and with extra resources needed to help Ukraine defeat Putin – Liz feels the time isn’t right to be cutting head count.
“She thinks we should be investing more in defence, security and foreign affairs at a time of heightened global insecurity, so this is consistent with that.”
