Repay them in hard cash

REWARD

will put their names to a Commons motion of support tomorrow, we are calling on Boris Johnson to give them a special supplement.

After all, when our Armed Forces go into combat they get an extra operational allowance for risking life and limb.

It was David Cameron who doubled this daily tax-free payment to £29.02 for our troops as one of his first acts as PM.

There was no opposition. It was universally acknowledged that was the least the military deserved.

Healthcare workers are also putting their lives on the line in the service of their country.

They face premature death no less than our soldiers did in the badlands of Afghanistan. In fact more so, as the mounting casualty figures show.

In under three months 132 have died from corona’s viral bullets. That’s more than a quarter of the number of British soldiers the Taliban killed over 13 years.

We recognise that the Covid-19 front line, terrible though it might be, is not Helmand Province. NHS staff are not wrenched from their families for a six-month tour of duty.

So we are proposing the operational allowance be used as a model for the method of delivery, not as a mandate for what should be delivered. And it would last only as long as this crisis does.

The amount is a matter for Rishi Sunak. And as the Chancellor taps on his calculator to work that out, he must also build in compensation for the families of frontline workers killed in the line of duty.

We can do our bit to help him. The cost of outstanding negligence claims against the NHS is £83billion.

Ambulance-chasing lawyers should leave ambulances alone, and those making claims now think twice before they do.

Once this is all over there will be an opportunity to show all our underpaid key workers just how much we value them.

The shelf stackers and shop assistants, delivery drivers and truckers, posties and refuse collectors, transport and utility workers, all must be recognised.

They have kept the nation ticking over and made lockdown bearable for the rest of us.

But today, let us honour those who have given their lives to save others – and those we continue to call upon to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Because for too many of them, tomorrow will be too late.