Families to receive extra funding – PM
BORIS Johnson insisted he has a plan to “get our country back on its feet” amid warnings the UK is on course to suffer the biggest economic hit of any developed country from the coronavirus.
At Prime Minister’s questions, Mr Johnson promised extra cash to support vulnerable families and said the Government had “put its arms around the people of this country throughout this crisis”.
But he faced continued pressure about the failure to deliver on a goal of fully reopening England’s primary schools by the summer and there was further uncertainty about the introduction of an app as part of the Government’s test and trace programme.
In the Commons, where Mr Johnson faced questions about race relations in the UK following the protests triggered by the death of George Floyd, the Prime Minister said black and minority ethnic (Bame) workers had been at the forefront of efforts to tackle coronavirus in frontline jobs.
In response to a Public Health England report which laid bare the increased risk faced by ethnic minority groups, Mr Johnson told MPs: “What we are doing first and most directly is to ensure that those highcontact professions get expanded and targeted testing now.”
Under pressure from Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer over support for children who will not get free school meals over the summer holiday, Mr Johnson announced a £63 million support fund.
“We are announcing a further £63 million of local welfare assistance to be used by local authorities at their discretion to help the most vulnerable families,” the Prime Minister said.
“This Government has put its arms around the people of this country throughout this crisis and has done its absolute best to help.”
The Prime Minister said “we are now getting the disease under control but we will do it in a cautious and contingent way”.
He added: “We are sticking to our plan, it is a plan that is working and will continue to work.”
Sir Keir said the UK is the “outlier” compared to other countries in returning children to school, and hit out at the Prime Minister’s attack on trade unions over the problems in reopening classrooms. “It’s no good the Prime Minister flailing around trying to blame others,” Sir Keir said.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak accepted that “every day our children are not at school is a tragedy” and told Sky News “it is obviously going to have an impact on their futures”.
The Prime Minister’s questions exchanges came after the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said Britain’s economy was likely to slump by 11.5% in 2020 – but could contract by 14% if there is a second wave of Covid-19 later this year.