Robots 'could replace 250,000 UK public sector workers'

Reform thinktank says sector could be 'the next Uber' and staff should embrace the gig economy amid rise in automation

Almost 250,000 public sector workers could lose their jobs to robots over the next 15 years, according to a new report which claims machines would be more efficient and save billions of pounds.

Reform, a right-of-centre thinktank, says websites and artificial intelligence "chat bots" could replace up to 90% of Whitehall's administrators, as well as tens of thousands in the NHS and GPs' surgeries, by 2030 - saving as much as 4bn a year.