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Press Release

Axeman' Laws seeks '£58K spin doctor'

28 May 2010

The 'axeman' architect' of this week's £6 billion worth of cuts, David Laws is planning a bit of public expenditure of his own – he wants to employ a 'spin doctor' on a salary of £58,000-a-year.

Laws, the Liberal Democrat chief secretary, is accused of 'double standards and rank hypocrisy' by Unite, the largest union in the country, in seeking to employ his own press officer at a reported salary of £58,000.

Gail Cartmail, Unite assistant general secretary for the Public Sector said: 'David Laws, as George Osborne's deputy, is the architect of the £6 billion worth of public expenditure cuts – the first of many such cutbacks that will we have, no doubt, eventually take the axe to the jobs of frontline nurses, teachers, police officers and firefighters.'

'Nearly £60,000 is a lot of money to pay someone to peddle a glossy spin on what the public already knows is coming down the track. The stench of double standards and rank hypocrisy is already beginning to waft from the body of the so-called 'new politics'.'

'The public will question whether this nearly £60,000 post is the best use of taxpayers' money in these difficult economic times.'

Unite has already condemned the £6 billion cuts as 'a fundamental economic wrong turn by sucking money out of a still fragile economy'. Unite expects further bad news with the Budget on 22 June and in this autumn's comprehensive spending review.



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