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Sir Keir Starmer has said that the government can be more efficient by using AI and technology, ahead of the Spring Statement.
Questioned on BBC Radio 5 Live on whether unprotected departments would face cuts, the PM said ministers were “looking across the board,” but he wanted to challenge government to be more efficient.
Rachel Reeves has confirmed civil service departments will be asked to cut 15% from their budgets, but there is political unease among Labour MPs about the scale of cuts to departments, which the chancellor will outline in her statement on Wednesday.
It comes after the government unveiled sweeping changes to the benefits system, aimed at saving £5bn a year by 2030.
The PM said, “At the budget last year we made some record investments, and we’re not going to undo that,” pointing to increased NHS spending.
He said: “We’re essentially asking businesses across the country to be more efficient, to look at AI and tech in the way that they do their business.
“I want the same challenge in government, which is ‘why shouldn’t we be more efficient?’, so we will be looking there and in one or two other places.”
The PM was asked by the BBC later if he would consider changing the government’s fiscal rules and responded: “No, because we had to stabilise the economy, which is what we did with the Budget.”
He added: “The difference is that the global situation has changed – I think most people would understand that in the last few weeks and months the international insecurity has got very real – that does impact domestically.”
Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said it was the chancellor’s decisions that were the cause of sluggish growth forecasts, leading to the imposition of cuts.
“We wouldn’t be here because we would not have put those confidence-destroying taxes on the economy,” he told BBC Breakfast.
“We would have made different decisions, tackled welfare reform earlier – she’s doing that now but if it’s a moral mission of this government, why didn’t they do it nine months ago?”
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