Boris Johnson admitted to accusing Brits of suffering from ‘post-Covid manana culture’ as he slammed delays to public services.
The prime minister has questioned whether workers are as productive while working from home following claims he ranted about the issue at a Cabinet meeting.
His remarks follow complaints from some bosses that ‘lazy’ staff avoid their desks because ‘they just want to watch Loose Women’.
The Tory leader hasn’t denied threatening to ‘privatise the a**e off’ the Passport office amid fears families facing a 10-week wait could miss their holidays.
But recent data in February suggested employers may benefit from offering flexible working, with productivity exceeding pre-pandemic levels.
When questioned on his remarks, Mr Johnson acknowledged how working from home had helped women with children – before correcting himself and saying ‘parents’.
But he said he wanted to see ‘action’ in workplaces, as research suggests more of us than ever want to work remotely.
Speaking about ‘I’ll do it later’ attitudes, he said: ‘I did use those words [post-Covid manana culture].
‘I didn’t necessarily use them about any particular institution, but I think we have a general issue in some of our approaches to public services, and perhaps more widely, that we all got used to working from home, to Zoom calls, to thinking that we could do business like that.
‘I think for many people it is great, I don’t want to minimise the value of this, I think for lots of people, particularly for women who have kids, for parents who have kids, I don’t want to be stereotypical, anybody who wants to stay at home for one reason or another, you can see the advantages of working from home.
‘But I have to ask myself, I’m the custodian of the public purse and I’m looking at how much we’re taking and how much we’re spending, whether actually it is as productive.
‘When I see institutions not delivering things like passports or driving licences in a speedy way, these things are quite expensive, it’s £150 to get a new passport, we want action.’
It comes after other ministers made their dislike of staff working from home clear – with Jacob Rees-Mogg reportedly even leaving notes at empty desks saying ‘sorry you were out when I visited’.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak, whose wife was recently criticised for her non dom status, has previously urged people to return to offices as it is ‘really important for younger workers’.
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