Letwin: Tackling Whitehall waste

Oliver Letwin has warned that the civil service has now grown to the size of Sheffield.

Government attempts to slim down the size of Whitehall's bureaucracy are failing, the shadow chancellor added.

The comments came as the Conservatives published an analysis of vacancies listed in the jobs pages of the Guardian newspaper since the July spending review announcement.

Despite chancellor Gordon Brown's pledge to slash over 100,000 jobs, Letwin said that Britain still suffered from a "bulging bureaucracy".

He added that the newspaper had carried adverts for 2,900 public sector jobs since July, with a combined annual salary of £105 million.

"The trouble is that government in Britain has got too big," said Letwin.

"Our civil service is now the size of Sheffield. The public sector is crowding out the private sector."

He said most vacancies were for non-frontline jobs.

"What does it tell you about Labour waging war on bureaucracy? It's just one more example from this government of talk, not action," he added.