The Conservatives would cut up to £2 billion from the public sector payroll, according to their key efficiency adviser, in a move which could lead to the loss of 40,000 jobs.Sir Peter Gershon, who defected from Labour to join a Tory advisory panel in December, laid out for the first time how the Tories plan to make a total of £12 billion of savings.
The Tories have consistently said that more needs to be done to tackle the deficit, but to date they have been reluctant to give a breakdown of how they would achieve the extra £12bn of cuts, which would come on top of £15bn of savings that Labour has said it would make.
The £12bn of savings would be twice the cost of the Conservatives' plan to limit Labour's proposed National Insurance rises, which has dominated the first few days of the election campaign.
Speaking on Friday morning, David Cameron said: "We are saying that you need to go further and faster in public spending [cuts] than Labour."
