Freeze state pensions and slash ‘non-frontline’ NHS and schools staff, said No 10’s economic adviser

Radical ideas to reduce spending, outlined in Matthew Sinclair's 2010 handbook, may now be needed by the Tories to pay for their tax cuts

Liz Truss's top economic adviser suggested freezing the state pension, halving the government's publicity budget and slashing non-frontline" staff in health and schools by 10%, as part of a manifesto designed to win an election while also cutting spending.

Matthew Sinclair, the former chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, edited a book by the small-state pressure group that called for a series of radical cuts, including the scrapping of the Prevent programme designed to tackle extremism.