Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street
British Prime Minister launches massive public sector cuts
In neighboring France, it’s virtually impossible to fire a civil servant. The law allows for some creative reshuffling — fired firefighters can be reassigned as postal workers, and garbage collectors can end up as school janitors or gym teachers. But Britain plays by different rules — no such nonsense there.
Keir Starmer had been mulling over this reform for a full nine months — just like clockwork. He kept it under wraps for another week, then suddenly unveiled it at a public event in Yorkshire: a sweeping overhaul of the entire state bureaucracy.
The man in charge of implementing this vision is Pat McFadden, whose official title is Minister for the Cabinet Office — essentially the head of government administration. He has sent what can only be described as «Letters of Fate» to every department in Whitehall, demanding that they justify their existence — quickly — by explaining why they’re necessary, effective and worth the taxpayer’s money.
Britain’s bureaucratic apparatus evolved into a sprawling, semi-independent organism. Over time, its branches grew autonomously, spawning their own offshoots and demanding ever-increasing budgets. Many of these agencies became de facto independent, free from oversight, bloated with dubious job titles filled by friends and relatives, awarded themselves bonuses — and you can guess the rest.
Traditionally, cutting the civil service has been the battle cry of the Conservative Party. The Tories have long tried to shrink, privatize or outsource the public sector rather than fund it. And every time they have tried, Labour has stood firmly against them in Parliament. But now, in a surprising twist, the Labour leader himself has embraced that very logic.
It sounds more like a Trump-Musk doctrine than anything from a European left-wing playbook: cut, streamline, fire the unnecessary. These American-style measures are a far cry from the principles of Europe’s social democrats. Yet Starmer has now publicly committed himself to cutting bureaucracy «to ensure full democratic scrutiny of the system».
This suggests that the old left-right divide in Western politics is eroding — except perhaps in France, where unions can rally tens of thousands from the Place de la Bastille to the Place de la République at a moment’s notice.
In Britain, the new reforms are expected to eliminate up to 100,000 public sector jobs — perhaps as many as 200,000, according to Bloomberg estimates.
First on the chopping block: the notoriously bloated and inefficient National Health Service (NHS), with an annual budget of £134 billion. Although technically under the Department of Health, the NHS operates as a semi-autonomous entity. And it’s failing miserably — only 14% of Britons think it’s still working.
Waiting times for surgery stretch on for years. Doctors, nurses and ambulance staff are fleeing to the private sector because of low pay and unbearable workloads. The NHS used to rely on Polish and Baltic medics to keep it afloat, but even they no longer want to move to post-Brexit Britain.
The NHS has grown to 42 branches. The new plan includes halving the 15,000 staff at its London headquarters and cutting another 25,000 in regional offices. The new NHS chief executive, Jim McKee, in line with Labour’s new agenda, proposed cutting half the HR, accounting and PR staff by the end of the year. But Starmer went further: why not disband the NHS altogether within two years and return health care to the Department of Health?
Some NHS officials have tried to fight back, citing declines in vaccinations, dental care and blood pressure screening. But the proposed cuts would save £400 million a year — and £750 million more by closing down NHS subsidiaries.
Starmer and his review team believe the UK is overrun with redundant agencies and ghost jobs that provide little to no public value.
His broader plan isn’t just to trim outdated bureaucracies, but to reshape government itself. A complete reset is on the table, leaving behind little more than the Speaker’s sheepskin seat in the House of Lords.
Civil servants are now required to fill out self-assessments, demonstrating how they personally contribute to efficiency, reduce costs and improve outcomes. Those with convincing answers may be rewarded with bonuses or pay increases. Others face retraining — or worse. The same rules even apply to Top Public Servants (TPS), the senior management class.
«I want every pound of taxpayer money to be well spent», McFadden said. «Our new controls will expose waste and reward those — including TPS — who deliver value».
Even Britain’s powerful unions have called Starmer’s plan «more or less reasonable» — a surprising show of restraint.
Meanwhile, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves has asked every government department to cut its budget by at least 5%.
And all of this is coming from Labour. A party that once wouldn’t dream of touching the public sector.
For comparison, it’s the center-right that’s in power in France. Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire wants to reduce the budget deficit to 4.6%, which means cutting 40 billion euros. The savings will come from France’s generous social model — welfare, subsidized housing for migrants, free health care for anyone who sets foot in the country. All this costs a fortune.
Same logic. Different direction.