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BLUNDERING axeman Danny Alexander let slip yesterday that half-a-million jobs will go under Con-Dem plans to slash the public sector.

The figure was revealed in a dossier lying open on the minister's lap as he drove into the Treasury.

Up to 50,000 of the jobs will disappear from Scotland - one in 10 public sector jobs north of the Border.

Thousands of teachers, nurses, health and council staff will be ordered to take pay cuts under the plans to be announced today.

They will be told to work fewer hours if they want to keep their jobs.

Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, accidentally gave away the full impact of the £83billion cuts a day early.

He was photographed with a briefing paper on the Comprehensive Spending Review on his lap.

The papers stated that the coalition expects 490,000 public sector. jobs to be shed by 2014-15 directly as a result of their drastic spending cuts.

The document warns it will "inevitably impact" on workers because the Whitehall wage bill accounts for a huge chunk of spending.

It claims a healthier private sector will make up for the pain and mentions "voluntary deals with staff on pay restraint or reduced hours in order to save jobs".

The paper states: "Government will do everything they can to mitigate the impact of redundancies.

"This will be done by creating conditions for private sector growth, encouraging pay restraint and reduced hours and supporting employees facing redundancy so they can find work in the private sector."

Labour's Douglas Alexander, shadow work and pensions secretary, said the leak proved the coalition think unemployment is a price worth paying.

He added: "They plan to put people out of work faster than the private sector can create jobs.

"The risk is that this will make reducing the deficit even more painful, as more money is spent on higher unemployment bills."