By Rob Woodward: How many wars does the Tory party like to engage in? We’ve had and still have the lingering effects of Brexit and Covid19. Now we are engaged in a war with Ukraine, which is causing rapidly rising inflation and an economic war against recession and quite probably stagflation. The government has stepped up its threats to the EU over Northern Ireland – and now thinks this is a great time to have a full-on conflict with the very service that keeps the government wheels turning – the civil service.

Two civil service unions have written to Steve Barclay demanding an urgent meeting to discuss plans to dramatically cut civil service numbers over the next five years.

Last week’s revelation of proposals to cut 91,000 jobs over the next three years was “met with horror not only by members but also by their employers, who were shocked by the announcement”, Mike Clancy and Dave Penman – general secretaries of the Prospect and FDA unions – said in a letter today.

And they blasted the “crass and insensitive” way the plans were made public, via a newspaper interview in which the prime minister said he wanted to “cut the cost of government to reduce the cost of living”.

“The damage of the announcement was compounded by how it was clearly leaked to the press and the media in advance, with the first time staff and civil service employers finding out the government’s intentions being when they saw the front page of the Daily Mail or turned on the radio on Friday morning,” they said.

There has so far been no official ministerial statement on the plans.

And while government efficiency minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has used several media appearances to share his thinking – telling Sky News “it’s about governing effectively and recognising that every penny we take in tax has to come off the backs of people working hard” – Barclay has said relatively little about the cuts since Friday’s announcement.

Announcing a separate move to advertise all senior civil service roles externally by default on Friday, the minister acknowledged the announcement only in passing, saying: “We want to reduce the size of the civil service so it comes back down to the levels we had in 2016 but it remains important that, when we do recruit, particularly for leadership roles, we are able to bring in the best possible candidates for every position.”