Jacob Rees Mogg showing empty ministry offices, as civil servants continue to work from home.
(Picture: Jacob Rees Mogg)Jacob Rees-Mogg has shared an image of an empty Cabinet Office left deserted by civil servants working from home that triggered him to leave notes for absentees.
The photo of rows of empty desks with computers turned off was taken by the minister for government efficiency at 11am on a weekday, who added: “It looked as if the office hadn’t been used in two years.
“Thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money is being spent, and either they need to be there or not. If not, we should put somebody in this property.”
Jacob Rees-Mogg is leaving this note for civil servants who aren’t at their desks… pic.twitter.com/7KzBcGKVJP
— Dino Sofos (@dinosofos) April 22, 2022
Mr Rees-Mogg has written to Cabinet ministers calling on them to issue a clear message to staff about a “rapid return to the office” and has been leaving notes in empty Whitehall workspaces with the message: “I look forward to seeing you in the office very soon.”
Asked whether the notes were meant to scare people back to the office, Mr Rees-Mogg told ITV: “No, no, no – I have a number of responsibilities, one of them is the government property agency.
“We have very expensive property in London, it is there to be used. If people aren’t using it - they don’t need grade one London office space - they can be elsewhere.
“And so people either need to be coming in to work or the office space can be reallocated to people who will use it.”
Downing Street said Boris Johnson supported Mr Rees-Mogg’s efforts.
“What the minister is seeking to achieve is to do everything possible to get the civil service to return to the pre-pandemic level,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.
But his approach caused a reported clash in cabinet with Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries accusing Mr Rees-Mogg of a “Dickensian” approach to working from home.
It came as Mr Rees-Mogg presented figures to Cabinet showing that some Government departments were using as little as 25 per cent of office capacity in early April – the figure for Ms Dorries’ Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport was 43 per cent.
Ms Dorries told him his letter to Government departments brought to mind “images of burning tallow, rheumy eyes and Marley’s ghost” – a reference to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
The Times reported she said: “There’s a whiff of something Dickensian about it. Why are we measuring bodies behind desks? Why aren’t we measuring productivity?”
Mr Rees-Mogg used a Mail on Sunday article to warn that officials may lose the London weighting on their pay or see their jobs moved elsewhere if they were not at their desks.
