Emergency Budget ‘will create redundancy for 600,000 in public sector’

Posted 30/06/2010

More than 600,000 people in the public sector will face redundancy in the next six years as a result of cutbacks imposed by the emergency Budget.

This is according to new figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility, which predicted 490,000 job losses by 2015 and 610,000 by 2016.

However, David Cameron has insisted that unemployment will fall under the new coalition, stating that the total number of jobs could rise by 1.34 million as a result of growth in the private sector.

Acting Labour leader Harriet Harman criticised the plans for job losses at prime minister’s questions yesterday (June 30th 2010).

“You should know what abject misery this unemployment will cause to individuals, families and communities,” she commented.

The new figures were rushed out after claims in the Guardian this week that 1.3 million more people could be facing redundancy by 2015.

It said it had seen a slide from a government presentation which showed the extent of the cutbacks.