Vote Marion Lloyd for PCS president, and candidates prepared to stand up to Starmer’s government for the NEC
PCS members
£2bn cuts – a massive 15%. That is the scale of the axe being taken to the civil service by Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer’s Labour government.
A week before this announcement, “radical reforms” to the civil service were threatened by Labour minister Pat McFadden, along with a 50% cull of NHS England jobs. This followed previous Labour demands for 2% then 5% cuts in government departments.
But such is the determination of PCS civil service union general secretary Fran Heathcote to cover for Starmer’s government, when news reports circulated of a threat to 10,000 jobs, she dismissed these as from a “rogue journalist”!
When McFadden made his threats, Socialist Party member Marion Lloyd wrote to the PCS general secretary and president on behalf of the left majority of the National Executive Committee (NEC).
Marion is the Broad Left Network-supported candidate for president in the upcoming national PCS elections. She warned of the “enormity of the potential attacks” and called for an emergency meeting of the NEC to plan what to do.
Complacent
In contrast, in a totally complacent public statement, Heathcote said she had been “assured” by 10 Downing Street that this was “not about slashing the state”. In response to Marion’s call, current president Martin Cavanagh said he saw “no need” for an emergency NEC.
But the next day, Heathcote put up a new totally different statement in response to Starmer’s speech. The original statement disappeared from the ‘news’ page of the PCS website and can only be found hidden away under the vague title ‘blogs’.
The tone is getting harder – because of the pressure from Marion and the BLN. Of course, stronger words are not the same as a fighting strategy to resist. Our call for an emergency NEC remains, and is even more important in the light of the Spring Statement attacks.
Marion Lloyd and the BLN are the real fighters. If they can force a change of tone now, imagine the difference a fighting president will make!
In the national elections, vote Marion Lloyd for PCS president and for the BLN-supported list of fighting candidates for NEC
