ALMOST half of the staff working at the Charity Commission’s headquarters in Liverpool will lose their jobs under shock cost-cutting plans.

The organisation – the watchdog for charities across England and Wales – will shed 77 staff from its Princes Dock base as it wrestles with a savage 33% budget cut from the Government.

The Commission immediately said it hoped to avoid any compulsory redundancies and was urging staff to leave under its “voluntary exit” scheme. Twenty have already left through that route.

But Luciana Berger, the Wavertree MP, who was alerted to the job cuts by a constituent, said she was “very concerned” at the prospects for staff – and accused the Commission of targeting the lowest-paid.

The Labour MP also said the announcement made a mockery of David Cameron’s promise to create a Big Society, in which charities would play a bigger role in delivering services.

Ms Berger said: “I am very concerned for my constituents who work at the Commission and for the impact on the its role, which is to make sure that charities comply with the rules.

“Also, the proposals which are being consulted on appear to target the people on the lowest grades at the Commission, so more of the lowest-paid will lose their jobs.

“And it is another example of why the Prime Minister’s Big Society programme has been criticised so much.”