This government urgently needs to be making big savings and is right to be attempting to do so across the civil service, Bow Group Chairman Ben Harris-Quinney has said.

Ben Harris-Quinney made the remarks after Conservative Cabinet Office Minister Jacob Rees-Mogg said that civil service staff must now stop working from home and return to their offices, with government workspaces having daily staff capacity of as low as 25 per cent for some departments, and still only a high of 73 per cent in others.

It had also been revealed that Mr Rees-Mogg was leaving notes on the desks of absent civil servants, reading: “Sorry you were out when I visited. I look forward to seeing you in the office very soon. With every good wish, Rt Hon Jacob Rees-Mogg MP.” The minister had written for the Daily Mail that vast, expensive, central London offices sitting empty was a “bad deal for taxpayers”.

Asked on GB News if Mr Rees-Mogg had a point, Bow Group Chairman Ben Harris-Quinney said: “Actually, Jacob Rees-Mogg and the government as a whole needs to go far further than it’s been going so far in driving efficiencies.

“The Bow Group has identified £250 billion in cuts that we would advise making in order to stay ahead of the government’s borrowing schedule and to cut the debt and the deficit and the system of quantitative easing which is a huge driver behind inflation.”

The think tank chairman continued: “This government urgently needs to be making big savings and therefore he is absolutely right to be attempting to do so across the civil service as a whole as a collective employer and leaser of property.”

Mr Harris-Quinney added: “Since 2015, 100,000 additional civil servants have been hired. Why vote for Labour when you’ve got a Conservative Party that has the biggest government, the highest taxes? It’s to the left of every Labour government on every major policy issue.

“It urgently needs to return to conservative values and that most basic of conservative value of living within your means. We’ve had a significant expansion of the civil service under the Conservative government. I think it’s now time to start moving in the other direction, to start making cuts, and to start granting greater efficiencies to the taxpayer who are the most burdened than they have been in 80 years in Britain.”

Read The Bow Group’s report, “Inflation: pandemic consequence, government negligence or globalist obedience?” here.

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