RISHI: NOW IT’S TIME TO LIVE WITHOUT FEAR

As he unveils plan to save jobs, Chancellor upstages cautious PM with new battle cry – and says what so many have been thinking

BRITAIN can no longer put normal life on hold, Rishi Sunak warned yesterday.

As he unveiled his latest rescue package to save jobs, the Chancellor called on the nation to learn to live with coronavirus ‘without fear’. he added that the country could not carry on ignoring the economic impact of the pandemic.

Striking a different tone to the Prime Minister’s cautious, health-focused address to the nation on Tuesday, Mr Sunak said the ‘wider’ costs of Covid had to be taken account of in the coming weeks.

he added: ‘Our lives can no longer be put on hold. We have so often spoken about this virus in terms of lives lost.

‘But the price our country is paying is wider than that.

‘As we think about the next few weeks and months, we

need to bear all of those costs in mind.’ In his statement to the Commons yesterday, Mr Sunak confirmed the furlough scheme will not be continued past October 31 – despite warnings that at least two million jobs could be lost by January.

In its place will come a more modest wage subsidy scheme, which could still cost taxpayers an extra £9billion over the next six months. There will also be a package to help businesses.

Business leaders in Scotland last night welcomed the plans and said hundreds of thousands of jobs will be saved.

But Scotland’s tourism industry said the action will not be enough to save it from a ‘perilous’ situation and warned of ‘mass redundancies’ in the pipeline.

Mr Sunak said: ‘With the resurgence of the virus and the restrictions imposed as a result, now is the right time to provide the people of Scotland with the extra help they need.’

Boris Johnson raised eyebrows in the Commons by skipping his Chancellor’s flagship statement to pay a visit to police recruits in Northampton. Downing Street strenuously denied suggestions of a rift between the two men.

In his statement yesterday, the Chancellor said: ‘What was true at the beginning of this crisis remains true now. It’s on all of us. And we must learn to live with it and live without fear.’

Mr Sunak said it was right to ‘throw everything we’ve got’ at saving ‘viable jobs’. And, with Mr Johnson warning new restrictions are set to last for at least six months, he admitted the economy was ‘likely to undergo a more permanent adjustment’, with some jobs disappearing for good. On another day of crisis:

▪ Mr Sunak extended the 15 per cent VAT cut for the hospitality and tourism sectors until the end of March;

▪ Cheap business loans were extended, with firms told they can now repay over ten years and take payment holidays;

▪ The Chancellor hinted at future tax rises, warning he would have to make ‘very difficult decisions’ in future;

▪ Scots university students were warned they would be breaking the law if they go home to see their parents – despite assurances on Wednesday that they could;

▪ Tourism bosses condemned the SNP’s ‘farcical’ decisionmaking following a major Uturn on holiday lets;

▪ Two more Covid-19 deaths have been recorded in Scotland and 465 people have tested positive for the virus in the last 24 hours – the second highest daily total since the pandemic began;

▪ Scotland’s R number could now be as high as 1.6.

Mr Sunak said there had been ‘no harder choice’ than the decision to axe the furlough scheme, which has helped prop up 9.5 million jobs. But he said it was ‘fundamentally wrong to hold people in jobs that exist only inside the furlough’.

He said the Government needed to create ‘new opportunities’ for people, adding: ‘I cannot save every business. I cannot save every job.’

The furlough scheme has seen the state pay 80 per cent of people’s wages if their jobs had disappeared because of the lockdown. The new Job Support Scheme will provide help for those in ‘viable’ jobs who work at least a third of their normal hours.

Employers will pay for the hours actually worked, while they and the Treasury will then cover two-thirds of the pay for missed hours. The scheme, which will last for six months, means the state will subsidise no more than 22 per cent of a worker’s wages up to a maximum of £697.92 per month.

The Treasury declined to put an overall cost on it, but Mr Sunak suggested the bill would be roughly £300million a month for every million workers on the scheme.

However, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said the new plan was ‘significantly less generous’ than the previous one and would lead to ‘sharply rising unemployment’, as jobs which relied on state funding will cease to exist.

But Tracy Black, director of CBI Scotland, said: ‘These bold steps from the Treasury will save hundreds of thousands of viable jobs this winter.’ First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the proposals were ‘a step forward’.

But SNP Finance Secretary Kate Forbes said: ‘What the Chancellor has set out today does not go far enough. With only five weeks until the end of the furlough scheme, businesses have already taken difficult decisions and now need greater certainty and more time to plan.’

‘Throw all we’ve got at saving jobs’ ‘Will lead to rising unemployment’