Conservatives to sack a tenth of staff

While all eyes are on The UK Budget Statement, at the less glamourous end of politics, the new Conservative-run Cornwall Council announced plans to sack one in ten of its Council staff. This to apparently save around a tenth of the £200 million annual wage bill.

Last year the Conservatives wanted to be seen clapping public servants. Now they want to sack them. This wasn’t mentioned when garnering votes in May. Despite massive financial pressures caused by the 80% cut in central Government grant since 2015, Cornwall’s previous Independent and Liberal Democrat administration had no plans to sack staff, nor to close leisure centres.

The Conservatives have been happy enough to hand out £104m of Cornwall’s covid aid to second homers who don’t need it. But don’t seem prepared to fight to protect essential public servants. A bitter blow for staff who’ve kept services running in the most difficult circumstances.