Poor must be focus of bold rescue package

BRITAIN has been tested by an unprecedented public health crisis. Now we are about to be tested by an unprecedented economic crisis.

If the forecasts are right, we stand on the precipice of a downturn that could be worse than the Great Depression.

While it is the elderly who have been the main victims of Covid-19, it is the young who are set to suffer most from the collapse.

A third of young people have lost jobs or been furloughed and youth unemployment is predicted to double this year to more than a million.

With experts warning it could take seven years for the labour market to recover, a generation faces being left on the dole.

Other countries have recognised the scale of response needed. Germany is spending £900billion, and France more

JASON BEATTIE, HEAD OF POLITICS

than £300bn. Our government needs to be just as bold.

It must also learn from the mistakes of 2010. George Osborne, pictured, squandered the chance after the financial crash to invest in green industries, rebuild technical and vocational education and reform tax. The former Chancellor’s fetish about reducing borrowing ingrained austerity and delayed the recovery. Instead of balancing the books on the back of the poor, the lowest income households should be at the centre of any rescue package.

If we want a lasting recovery in the UK we must repair the social security safety net and give those in work a real living wage and genuine job security.