Whitehall boss facing the sack

A Whitehall boss who claimed female staff lack ambition was today facing calls for the sack.

Kevin White also said middle managers block reform in the Department of Works and Pensions, which is now hit by a strike over pay.

Ministers are being urged to axe Mr White, the department's director of human resources,

after his comments made in a meeting in February were leaked.

The row is threatening to inflame a dispute that has seen up to 90,000 staff walk out on the first day of a 48-hour stoppage, causing disruption at Jobcentres, benefit offices and prisons. Civil service union leaders are now urging ministers to intervene.

Keith Wylie, of the Public and Commercial Services Union - which is behind the strike - said: "Our members are rightly shocked and angry at this insensitive and chauvinistic analysis of their value by one of the top civil servants in the DWP."