A leaked audio recording has revealed Liz Truss mentioned British employees wanted “more graft” and lacked the “skill and application” of overseas rivals.
The Tory management frontrunner was chief secretary to the Treasury when the dialog with officers was recorded 5 years in the past.
In the recording, leaked to The Guardian, Ms Truss mentioned these outdoors London had been much less prone to be exhausting employees.
She mentioned British employees as a complete additionally lacked the “skill and application” of overseas rivals, particularly these in China.
Ms Truss mentioned it was “partly a mindset or attitude thing” and there appeared little need to alter the working tradition so the UK may change into extra affluent.
She additionally referenced a e book she co-authored in 2012, Britannia Unchained, saying a passage from it was “mischaracterised”.
The passage mentioned British employees had been among the many “worst idlers in the world”, however final month she claimed to haven’t written that chapter and blamed fellow creator and present deputy prime minister Dominic Raab.
In response to the audio being leaked, a supply from her workforce informed Sky News: “These half-a-decade-old comments lack context but one thing that is as clear today as ever before is a need to boost productivity, which leads to higher wages and a better quality of life for workers right across the UK.
“As prime minister, Liz will ship an economic system that’s excessive wage, excessive development and low tax.”
Her damning feedback within the leaked audio about these outdoors London will draw specific ire after she was compelled to make a U-turn earlier this month on plans to chop civil service pay outdoors the capital.
She claimed on the time there had been a “wilful misrepresentation” of her coverage however ended up abandoning proposals for regional pay boards for civil servants or public sector employees.
This was regardless of her marketing campaign publishing particular particulars.
The audio emerged simply moments earlier than she appeared at a hustings in Scotland alongside her rival, Rishi Sunak. She informed the viewers of Scottish Tory members she was a “child of the Union” as she tried to draw their votes.
In the leaked recording, she mentioned: “If you look at productivity, it’s very, very different in London from the rest of the country.
“But mainly this has been a historic truth for many years.
“Essentially, it’s partly a mindset and attitude thing, I think. It’s working culture, basically. If you go to China it’s quite different, I can assure you.
“There’s a basic challenge of British working tradition. Essentially, if we’ll be a richer nation and a extra affluent nation, that should change.
“But I don’t think people are that keen to change that.
“There’s a slight factor in Britain about wanting the straightforward solutions.
“That’s my reflection on the election and what’s gone before it, and the referendum – we say it’s all Europe that’s causing these huge problems, it’s all these migrants causing these problems. But actually what needs to happen is more, more graft. It’s not a popular message.”
Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, mentioned Ms Truss’ feedback had been “grossly offensive”.
“Earlier this month, Liz Truss suggested workers outside London should have their pay cut,” he mentioned.
“Now it’s revealed she has been saying people outside London don’t have the right culture or attitude.
“With wages shrinking because of Tory failure to deliver inflation underneath management and years of lacklustre development, it is grossly offensive for Liz Truss to successfully model British employees lazy.
“I would have hoped she had moved on from the days of her ‘Britannia Unchained’ fiasco, but it seems that is the blueprint for her prospective government.”
Source: information.sky.com”