Liz Truss, chief secretary to the Treasury, said regulation of proffesions was damaging trade

Middle-class professionals are a “blob” operating a closed shop, deterring new entrants and damaging growth, a cabinet minister said yesterday.

Liz Truss, chief secretary to the Treasury, went on the attack against lawyers, doctors and teachers for allowing “elements” within their profession to be “constantly lobbying to put barriers up to prevent new people joining them”.

She identified “people with a vested interest in more government”, and promised to wage war on their restrictive practices. It echoes Michael Gove’s attack on “the blob”, his name for the teaching profession when he was education secretary.

Ms Truss told a conference: “They can be the lobbyists. They can be the unions. They can be the bureaucrats. They can be the nimbys. I call them The Blob. Gloopy.