Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he will support plans by Elon Musk to force US federal employees back to the office once Donald Trump re-enters the White House.

Speaking to reporters ahead of a meeting with Musk, who has been tasked by Trump with rooting out government inefficiency, Johnson cited a report which he claimed showed that only about “one per cent” of civil servants were actually working in their offices, if federal security guards and maintenance personnel were not counted.

The report, released on Thursday by Joni Ernst, the Republican senator for Iowa, claimed that “bureaucrats have been found in a bubble bath, on the golf course, running their own business, and even getting busted doing crime while on taxpayers’ time”.