New research from the TaxPayers’ Alliance has revealed there are now 426,000 more people working on the public payroll than in September 2018. For all the talk about reining in Whitehall and cutting back on wasteful spending, the public sector headcount has increased to an incredible 5.8 million, with the Civil Service alone growing by 77,000 over the last four years. The TPA points out that’s nearly the size of the entire British Army…

In fact, the entire headcount of Tesco – Britain’s largest supermarket chain with revenues of around £57 billion – sits at around 345,000. In other words, the taxpayer has coughed up for the salaries of a workforce bigger than a multi-billion pound company in just four years. Civil service employment grew at a rate four times faster than the private sector between September 2021 and September 2022. 

Guido’s old enough to remember when the government planned to cut the civil service headcount by 91,000. Look how that’s turned out. And for what benefit? The DVLA’s workforce increased by 140 between March 2020 and September 2022. Good luck renewing your driving licence, though…