Tories sack staff in drive to pay off general election overdraft

Big staff cuts were announced yesterday by the Conservative Party in a drive to get the Tories out of the red after the election.

Senior Tory sources confirmed that there would be redundancies, probably running into double figures, but denied the number would be as high as 50 out of 150 staff. "There is a degree of retrenchment after every general election, and this is what we are doing," said a Tory source.

The cuts will hit the press office, the research department and clerical staff at Tory headquarters in Smith Square. They were agreed at a meeting of the Conservative Board of Management.

The party wiped out a deficit of over pounds 16m to go into a small surplus after the election, but the source said the party had since dipped into the red. "After 1992, the deficit ballooned and we acted later rather than sooner. This time we are acting sooner to live within our means."