Bingo. I also suspect they’re gambling on it being a failure. Hard ball behaviour if true but a failure of such a privatisation would be very high profile and likely put a stop to anything similar for a long time.
Also note that failures to meet agreed standards will have penalties so it might be possible for labour to force them out that way.
This was always what he intended. Get people to quit instead of paying redundancy when he has to reduce the work force. Classic stuff done by many big orgs over the years. Make the place shit to work at and people quit for you.