Oliver Letwin has questioned what savings will be made

Shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin says the government will just end up with thousands more bureaucrats.

In an analysis of Mr Brown's three-year spending plans, Mr Letwin says 13,000 of the 84,000 "job cuts" are posts reallocated elsewhere.

The government insists the Tory figures do not add up and accuse them of wanting of cut front line workers.

Mr Letwin questioned Mr Brown's plans to redirect savings to services like health and education.

Whitehall axe

He claims 13,000 so-called job cuts are actually reallocations to roles such as personal assistants in job centres.

And the shadow chancellor says more than half of the 460,000 new public sector jobs created under Labour have gone to bureaucrats - and predicted that trend would continue.

Earlier this month, Mr Brown told MPs 84,150 Whitehall jobs would go, plus 20,000 from English councils and the devolved authorities.

These are real improvements in the quality of service that the public expects Ruth Kelly Financial Secretary to the Treasury

The money saved will be spent on education, health, defence, housing and overseas aid, he said.

The 84,150 Whitehall job cuts come out of a current total of 465,700.

All three main political parties are promising to cut bureaucracy, with the Liberal Democrats proposing to close the Department of Trade and Industry and others.

Arithmetic problem?

Mr Letwin said he applauded Labour's aims in the cuts but in reality the party would produce a "huge increase in bureaucracy".

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "This government should not be able to hoodwink the British public into believing that it is thinning down government when it is not.

"Because what it is doing is not subtracting but adding bureaucrats. I'm not talking about front line workers."

Questions have been raised about Michael Howard's Tory leadership after he received poor notices for his performance in last week's Commons debate on the Butler report.

But Mr Letwin praised Mr Howard for giving the Conservatives a new sense of unity and strategy.

The best way for the party to regain momentum was by setting out its arguments on key issues, he said.

'Front line improvements'

Financial Secretary to the Treasury Ruth Kelly said the Tory attack on the government's plans was designed to distract attention from the party's internal strife.

She said Labour was increasing the number of public service workers, but only by appointing more doctors, teachers, nurses, classroom assistants and police.

The Tories meanwhile should explain where their "�18bn of cuts" would fall, she argued.

Ms Kelly added: "These are real improvements in the quality of service that the public expects.

"There is a big argument here about whether we want to have that investment and see the government delivery better front line services or whether, as I think Oliver is now proposing, you want to scale back government."

The Tories would cut the transport, defence, Home Office and international development budgets, she claimed.