Danny Alexander reveals public sector job loss numbers

Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, has given opposition parties and the financial press something of a bonanza today having been photographed reading a draft copy of the comprehensive spending review. Sharp eyed photographers noticed that a figure of around 490,000 had been penned into the report citing the potential number of job losses in the public sector. This has caused disarray within the government and anger within the trade union movement.

Over the last few weeks we have seen much comment, much rumour and much smearing with regards to the public sector budget and government spending review but only now are we starting to see the reality. If up to 500,000 jobs are lost in the public sector this will impact not only those in question but also companies which depend to a large extent on not only contracts from the public sector but also income from those employed by the public sector. We cannot play down how significant this number could become if indeed the UK government does confirm this worst-case scenario tomorrow.

George Osborne has the unenviable task of cutting £80 billion from public spending over the next four years while trying to maintain a relatively strong UK economy.