Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, unwittingly disclosed the full scale of the expected redundancies when he was photographed yesterday reading confidential briefing papers.
The documents showed that the independent Office for Budget Responsibility is likely to forecast 500,000 public sector workers will lose their jobs because of the cuts, the biggest in public spending since the Second World War.
Tens of thousands of officials in departments across Whitehall will be offered redundancy in the coming weeks under Coalition plans to cut more than £80 billion in public spending over the next four years, reports The Telegraph.
