Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary, confirms a defence spending boost announced by Rishi Sunak is actually £20 billion, not £75 billion. To fund this, the government plans substantial cuts to the Civil Service, reducing it by 72,000 employees. Shapps emphasizes using technology and AI in a modern civil service. Other departments face significant spending cuts to prioritize defence funding.
The Defence Secretary says the government will cut the size of the Civil Service substantially to fund more spending on our armed forces. Grant Shapps says 'a modern civil service would function by using more technology & more AI'. https://t.co/jmUl1VHrFw
Grant Shapps confirms to @BBCr4today that there will be massive spending cuts to unprotected departments to fund defence spending: “everything else becomes somewhat less relevant”.
Grant Shapps doesn't deny that the "£75 billion" defence spending boost announced by Rishi Sunak yesterday is actually, er, £20 billion. Story 👇 https://t.co/VW5vFhz5ms
'We are going to take the size of the civil service down by 72,000' Defence Secretary Grant Shapps told #BBCBreakfast that extra spending on defence will partly come from cuts to the civil service https://t.co/RUXxtEiT8b https://t.co/qvUwmUyaM7
Sally Nugent: How are you going to find the £75b for defense? Grant Shapps: "We are going to take the size of the civil service down by 72,000... & we'll do that across the whole of government..." #BBCBreakfast https://t.co/dI7BiP4seL