Author: Roger Partridge

The pre-Christmas stoush between Finance Minister Nicola Willis and her 1990s predecessor Ruth Richardson has faded. The planned debate was cancelled. But beneath the theatre lies a puzzle neither of them addressed. The Government has cut contractors, culled consultants, deferred capital projects. Yet one number – the one most directly within ministerial control – has barely shifted. In June 2017, four months before Labour took office, the core public service employed just over 47,000 full-time equivalent staff. Six years later, on the eve of the 2023 election, that number had swelled beyond 63,000. Then came something curious. In the months…