Sunak snubs Sturgeon on furlough plea
NICOLA Sturgeon yesterday renewed her plea for the Treasury to extend the furlough scheme – as the Chancellor dug his heels in and warned of “hardship ahead”.
The job retention scheme has paid the wages of more than 680,000 Scots until autumn.
But Rishi Sunak told the Andrew Marr Show: “It’s not sustainable to carry on doing that. There’s a general consensus about that across probably the political and economic spectrum.
“It will run in total for eight months, which I think is a generous period of time to provide support.
“There is going to be hardship ahead.”
He will taper back the furlough scheme in August, with companies expected to pay a higher share of wages while the Government continues to subsidise 60 per cent of salaries up to cap of £2500 a month.
But at her daily press briefing, the First Minister highlighted that France has promised to keep wage subsidies in place for two years if necessary.
She added “Withdrawing the support doesn’t necessarily take away any financial burden it simply transfers it, if we see lots of people then avoidably made redundant.
“We see other countries – France already indicating that they would be prepared to continue schemes like this for perhaps up to two years if it was necessary – so we’ll continue to seek constructive discussions with the UK Government.”
The Chancellor said the focus was on the next stage of economic recovery as non-essential shops prepared to open in England today.
The UK Government is also set to ease the two-metre social distancing rule, despite chief medical advisors insisting it was essential to maintain it.
Labour urged the Government to give the hospitality sector specific support to safely reopen.
Shadown business and consumers minister Lucy Powell said: “It’s vital ministers turn their attention to the hospitality sector, providing clarity and guidance so that businesses can plan to reopen.”