Civil service to axe 10,000 jobs, Chancellor Rachel Reeves says – as she eyes cutting £2bn in costs
The chancellor has said she is “confident” 10,000 civil service jobs can be axed after numbers ballooned during the pandemic – as she seeks to cut more than £2bn from the budget.
Rachel Reeves has told Sky News she is certain the government can deliver those cuts to “back office jobs” to free up resources for “front line” services.
She is expected to unveil a raft of spending cuts during the spring statement on Wednesday – and has reportedly ruled out tax rises.
The FDA union has said the government needs to be honest about the move, first reported by The Telegraph, and the “impact it will have on public services”.
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What to expect from the spring statement
Reeves concedes cuts won’t be pain-free
Appearing on Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme, the chancellor was pushed repeatedly for a precise number of civil service jobs she wants to cut, and she eventually replied: “I’m confident that we can reduce civil service numbers by 10,000.
“And during COVID, there were big increases in the number of people that were working in the civil service.
“That was the right thing to do to respond to those challenges. But it’s not right that we just keep those numbers there forever.”
Ms Reeves said there are “a number” of civil service jobs that can be done by technology, while “efficiencies” can also be made by getting rid of quangos.
Asked what roles she expects to no longer need, she said: “It will be up for every department to set out those plans.
“But I would rather have people working on the front line in our schools and our hospitals and our police, rather than back office jobs.”
She said cuts will be made to things like travel budgets, spending on consultants, and also on communications.
She conceded that the cuts will not be pain free, but says she would rather spend money to “deliver better public services”.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves will give the spring statement next week. Pic: PA
Civil service departments will first have to reduce administrative budgets by 10%, which is expected to save £1.5bn a year by 2028-29.
The following year, the reduction should be 15%, the Cabinet Office will say – a saving of £2.2bn a year.
The chancellor has also said she won’t be putting up taxes on Wednesday, telling The Sun On Sunday: “This is not a budget. We’re not going to be doing tax raising.”
Ms Reeves added: “We did have to put up some taxes on businesses and the wealthiest in the country in the budget [in the autumn].
“We will not be doing that in the spring statement next week.”
The chancellor has repeatedly insisted she won’t drop her fiscal rules which preclude borrowing to fund day-to-day spending.
Civil service departments will receive instructions from the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden in the coming week, The Telegraph reported.
“To deliver our Plan for Change we will reshape the state so it is fit for the future. We cannot stick to business as usual,” a Cabinet Office source said.
“By cutting administrative costs we can target resources at frontline services – with more teachers in classrooms, extra hospital appointments and police back on the beat.”
The move comes after the government last week revealed welfare cuts it believes will save £5bn a year by the end of the decade.
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FDA general secretary Dave Penman said the union welcomed a move away from “crude headcount targets” but that the distinction between the back office and frontline is “artificial”.
“Elected governments are free to decide the size of the civil service they want, but cuts of this scale and speed will inevitably have an impact on what the civil service will be able to deliver for ministers and the country…
“The budgets being cut will, for many departments, involve the majority of their staff and the £1.5bn savings mentioned equates to nearly 10% of the salary bill for the entire civil service.”
Ministers need to set out what areas of work they are prepared to stop as part of spending plans, he said.
“The idea that cuts of this scale can be delivered by cutting HR and comms teams is for the birds. This plan will require ministers to be honest with the public and their civil servants about the impact this will have on public services.”
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Mike Clancy, general secretary of the Prospect union, warned that “a cheaper civil service is not the same as a better civil service”.
“Prospect has consistently warned government against adopting arbitrary targets for civil service headcount cuts which are more about saving money than about genuine civil service reform.
“The government say they will not fall into this trap again. But this will require a proper assessment of what the civil service will and won’t do in future.”
There is a “really concerning” rise in sexual violence among 14- and 15-year-olds that policymakers need to take “very seriously”, Home Office minister Jess Phillips has told Sky News.
Speaking to Sky News’ Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge, Ms Phillips, who holds the safeguarding and violence against women and girls (VAWG) portfolio, suggested that “generational progression” on feminism and the advancement of women does not appear to be continuing with her sons’ generation.
She said that “what our children are exposed to online absolutely is something that troubles me and troubles the government”, but argued that banning smartphones in schools is not necessarily the answer.
Politics latest: A new Labour chancellor would be ‘much worse’ than Reeves
Asked by Sky’s Sophy Ridge if she is worried about men being radicalised online in relation to how they view women, Ms Phillips replied: “If I look at the data of the growing number of sexual violence cases amongst the age group 14 and 15, as a policymaker, you have to take very seriously the growing number of cases.”
That age group are both the victims in these cases and the perpetrators.
Phillips: “We have to be providing an alternative narrative for our young people”
The minister was clear that she is “very alive to not wanting to just make all boys feel like they are the problem”.
Nonetheless, she said it is the government’s responsibility to ensure that all possible measures are in place “to look at what is happening with our teenagers and make sure that we are providing the education, and also the protection and prevention”.
‘Generational progression’ has halted
More broadly, Ms Phillips said: “If you look at the data and attitudes around things like feminism and the advancement of women, there are really concerning trends.
“And I think we always thought it would just progressively get better. And it’s no comment on either my father, my husband or my sons who are all absolutely cracking men, which is what most people would say about all of the men in their lives.
“But that generational progression was the thing we expected. But we have to look at the data and the concerns and the fears amongst… whether it’s extreme violence perpetrated by teenagers, and like I’ve already said, the sexual violence figures, and really take that on board.”
Read more on Sky News:
‘Staggering’ number of domestic abuse victims taking own lives
What you need to know about spring statement
Ministers ‘troubled’ by what young people see online
A ban on smartphones in schools is the subject of vast debate at the moment, with shadow education secretary Laura Trott campaigning on it. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson is reviewing the data around schools that have implemented a ban using their existing powers.
But Ms Phillips suggested that it is not the answer to the issue of sexual violence among teenagers.
She told Sophy Ridge: “I’m concerned about what our teenagers are exposed to and what they’re falling victim to. And if I thought that there was real evidence of them being in school, then absolutely. I would be campaigning for that.
“What our children are exposed to online absolutely is something that troubles me and troubles the government, and you cannot just say ‘ban it’.”
She added that “we have to be providing an alternative narrative for our young people”.
The minister pointed to the Online Safety Act as a key measure the government is taking to protect young people online, and went on to say that we need to be “making sure that our children are educated about things like misogyny, healthy relationships”.
Watch the full interview on Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge at 7pm.
Cryptocurrency-friendly trading platform eToro has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States following several previous attempts.
The company said in a March 24 announcement that it had submitted a registration statement on Form F-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission related to the IPO of its Class A common shares.
EToro has applied to list its Class A common shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “ETOR,” according to the announcement, which stated:
“A registration statement on Form F-1 relating to these securities has been filed with the SEC but has not yet become effective.”
eToro public IPO announcement. Source: eToro
The public filing comes over two months after eToro made confidential filings to the SEC in a move toward a potential IPO in New York, the Financial Times reported on Jan. 16.
Submitted in January, eToro’s IPO filing may value the business at more than $5 billion and list the platform as soon as the second quarter of 2025, the report noted, citing unidentified sources familiar with the matter.
Trading platforms such as eToro are often used by beginning investors looking to buy their first stock shares or cryptocurrency, thanks to their ease of use.
EToro’s IPO received attention from some of the world’s most notable investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, UBS and Citigroup, as lead managing bookmakers.
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EToro tried to go public in 2021 via SPAC offering
The crypto-friendly trading platform had multiple previous attempts to go public on the US stock exchange.
In 2021, eToro announced plans to go public via a merger with Fintech Acquisition Corp V, a special purpose acquisition company, valuing the company at $10.4 billion. However, the deal was terminated in mid-2022 due to unfavorable market conditions.
Related: Friday’s US inflation report may catalyze a Bitcoin April rally
Although the United Kingdom remains its largest market, eToro is pursuing a US listing to tap into a broader investor base.
“Very few of our global clients would trade UK shares,” eToro founder and CEO Yoni Assia reportedly said last year. He added:
“Something in the US market creates a pool of both deep liquidity and deep awareness for those assets that are trading in the US.”
In 2023, eToro raised $250 million in a funding round that valued the brokerage at $3.5 billion. The business may now be valued at more than $5 billion in its upcoming IPO, said one of the people familiar with the flotation plans.
According to Forbes, eToro was one of the first regulated trading platforms in Europe to offer Bitcoin (BTC) services in 2013, just a few years after the first BTC transaction was made in January 2009.
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Two strategic digital asset reserve bills in Arizona cleared Arizona’s House Rules Committee on March 24 and are now headed to the House floor for a full vote.
The bills together, if passed into law, would clear the way for Arizona to establish strategic digital assets reserves composed of existing assets confiscated through criminal proceedings in addition to newly invested public funds.
The Republicans hold a 33-27 majority in Arizona’s House of Representatives, giving both bills a decent chance of passing.
Source: Bitcoin Laws
However, according to Bitcoin Laws, the final hurdle could be the state’s Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs. Hobbs has a history of vetoing bills before the House, having blocked 22% of bills in 2024 — the highest rate of any state governor.
Arizona’s two crypto bills explained
The two bills recently approved by Arizona’s House Rules Committee are the Strategic Digital Assets Reserve Bill (SB 1373) and the Arizona Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act (SB 1025).
The Strategic Digital Assets Reserve Bill (SB 1373) focuses on establishing a strategic digital assets reserve made up of digital assets seized through criminal proceedings to be managed by the state’s treasurer.
The treasurer would be limited to investing no more than 10% of the fund’s total value each fiscal year. However, they would also be able to loan the fund’s assets in order to increase returns, provided that doing so doesn’t increase financial risks.
The Arizona Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act (SB 1025) specifically deals with Bitcoin (BTC). The bill proposes allowing Arizona’s Treasury and state retirement system to invest up to 10% of its available funds into Bitcoin.
Additionally, SB 1025 would also allow for the state’s Bitcoin reserve to be stored in a secure, segregated account inside a federal Bitcoin reserve, should one be established.
Related: US states lead in strategic Bitcoin reserve creation — Will Trump deliver on his BTC promise?
While Arizona is now considered to be leading the race to establish a state-based digital asset reserve, several other states are hot on its heels.
On March 6, the Texas Senate passed the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Bill (SB-21) by a vote of 25-5. The Texan bill still needs to pass the House and get the governor’s signature to pass into law. Following this vote, a new bill was introduced by Democrat Representative Ron Reynolds to cap the size of the previously uncapped reserve to $250 million.
Utah also recently passed Bitcoin legislation, but all references to the establishment of a strategic reserve were removed at the last moment.
Meanwhile, the Oklahoma House passed its Bitcoin Reserve Bill HB1203, 77-15 on March 25. That bill will now head to the state’s senate.
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