800 face sack in Beckett farm payment fiasco

A secret email shows the Chancellor has ordered a crackdown on the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, run by his leadership rival David Miliband, after the EU threatened to fine Britain up to £500million over the bungle.

A Commons report said last week that Mr Miliband's predecessor Margaret Beckett - who is now Foreign Secretary - should have been fired for failing to pay billions of pounds of subsidies to British farmers.

Now Whitehall officials claim Mr Brown is punishing staff for the blunder and say he has coined a new term for redundancies 'exemplification'.

The email, leaked to The Mail on Sunday, was sent on March 12 by Defra Permanent Secretary Helen Ghosh and warns that the Treasury is insisting on major job cuts.

"As a result of difficulties in the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) we have been unable to meet the timetable to deliver our original target to reduce our workforce,' says Ms Ghosh.

"We have another 500 reductions to find by March 2008 even to meet that target - and the Treasury is seeking further reductions in the CSR (Comprehensive Spending Review) for 2007.

We will face a further five per cent year-on-year reduction in our budget."

A Government insider said Defra had to shed 800 civil servants. "Because of the RPA shambles the job cuts went by the board while they sorted out the mess,' said a source. "Now there is a panic on to find even bigger cuts elsewhere.

"If the Government wants to make an example of someone for what went wrong it should start at the top, not the bottom. Margaret Beckett walked out of Defra into a more senior job at the Foreign Office.

"Meanwhile large numbers of civil servants are thrown out of their jobs to claw back the money we will have to pay to the EU in fines. Some parts of Defra will lose up to one in two staff."

Brussels has fined Britain £300million for the delays in money owed to farmers and is expected to impose another £200million penalty.

A report by the Commons environment select committee criticised the farms fiasco. Its chairman, Tory Michael Jack, said: "If Defra was a public company, the members of the main board would have tendered their resignations."

Mrs Beckett 'should not be rewarded with promotion but its reverse'. A Defra spokesman said: "We are working to meet our target of reducing the number of civil service posts.

"To ensure the RPA delivers a stable and reliable payment system to farmers, the reductions in its staffing will not start until the end of 2008.

"To deliver a smaller and more flexible department, we will continue to explore the potential for further workforce reductions."