Liz Truss escalates war on workers, unions and public sector in election campaign

The Foreign Secretary has promised to scrap 'settling time', which allows union officials to pay for hours off work to fulfill their duties while they are at work and seems to rule out scrapping the fox hunting ban

Conservative leadership candidate Liz Truss speaks during an election campaign in Exeter (

Image: Reuters)

Liz Truss escalated her war against workers, unions and the public sector tonight.

The Foreign Secretary has pledged to scrap "settlement time", which allows union officials to have paid time off to carry out their duties while at work.

Ms Truss also pledged to replace national wage commissions with regional units, paving the way for lower wages in poorer areas.

And she revealed she would be scrapping diversity and inclusion programs in Whitehall.

Ms Truss spoke of her "strong support" for blood sports, but appeared to rule out removing the ban on fox hunting.

Supporters of Conservative leadership candidates Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss (

Picture:

REUTERS)

She said she would tackle illegal immigration and increase defense spending to 3% of GDP by 2030.

On his bid to form regional remuneration commissions, his team claimed it would save £8.8 billion a year.

He added: "This will make it easier to adjust the pay of civil servants, ensuring it reflects where they work and ending the crowding out of local businesses that cannot compete with the pay of the public sector."