The state just needs to get smaller! Tories urge Whitehall cuts as civil service chief calls for 'fundamental' AI revolution to boost productivity

Published: 06:10 EST, 10 November 2026 | Updated: 06:17 EST, 10 November 2026 Tories have stepped up demands for a slimmer state - as the head of the civil service warns 'fundamental' change is needed.Cabinet Secretary Dame Antonia Romeo will use a speech this evening to highlight a looming crunch in departmental budgets and the low levels of public trust.She will call for a productivity and efficiency drive using AI, saying the technology represents a 'paradigm shift'.But Conservatives pointed out that Whitehall's headcount has continued growing under Labour, with full-time numbers nearly 130,000 higher than 2016. Shadow Treasury minister Gareth Davies said the party would save £9.6billion by cutting it back to the size from a decade ago.'The Civil Service doesn't just need to be far more productive, it needs to get smaller,' he said. Cabinet Secretary Dame Antonia Romeo will use a speech this evening to highlight a looming crunch in departmental budgets and the low levels of public trust Dame Antonia's speech at the London School of Economic (LSE) comes after Chancellor John Healey told departments to make 1 per cent cuts to their capital budgets to help fund defence.Andy Burnham has been vowing to move jobs and power out into the regions, but there are concerns that will just means more people being employed elsewhere rather than reductions in Whitehall. Dame Antonia will insist that 'the Civil Service of tomorrow must look very different from the Civil Service of today'.She is expected to say: 'Improving our productivity and efficiency is therefore essential in a tight fiscal context.'It is the only way we will be able to meet increased demand for services.'Dame Antonia will praise the 'remarkable institution' she leads but argue that officials must adapt to the age of AI, which 'represents the most profound paradigm shift in modern governance'.'For the first time in history, the efficacy of public service no longer has to be artificially constrained by the limits of human bandwidth,' the Cabinet Secretary is expected to say.'We must remain capable of explaining how and why decisions are made to retain public trust. Ethical and transparent deployment of AI with appropriate guardrails must be our overriding principle.'She will also call for more to be done to improve public trust, arguing: 'Trust in public institutions generally has reduced and needs to be re-earned.'