A HIT SQUAD of civil servants is drawing up a secret plan for dealing with further anti-austerity strike action, a government minister let slip yesterday.

Paymaster General Matthew Hancock told the Sunday Times that a 73-strong team of officials was drawing up plans to ensure that sufficient numbers of public-sector workers scab during future walkouts.

Mr Hancock said the government would work to ensure people can “get on with their lives” and don’t have to “put up with the chaos of strikes.”

He also described the People’s Assembly’s recent 250,000-strong demonstration as a “protest against democracy.”

This baffled Labour MP Emily Thornberry, who tweeted: “Surely [Sunday Times journalist Tim Shipman] made a mistake? Even Matt Hancock…”

Downing Street crisis committee Cobra is set to meet to discuss dealing with the response to Tory plans for ramped-up austerity following their Commons majority win.

Mr Hancock’s comments follow warnings that a major rail operator has recruited purple-clad workers known as “Ribena kids” with the specific aim of breaking strikes.

Delegates at rail union RMT’s conference last week said that First Great Western’s “customer ambassadors” would act as a reserve army of labour for if guards downed tools.

Workers at the National Gallery will conclude their latest 10-day stint of strike action on July 2. A number of unions have included provisions for national strike action in resolutions passed by their annual conferences.