Furlough help set to go on till autumn
Force rallies against Sturgeon’s threat to introduce checkpoints as part of tougher Covid curbs
RISHI Sunak is planning to announce the extension of furlough-style support for businesses hit by Covid until the autumn, The Mail on Sunday has learned.
The Chancellor has told Tory MPs that support for some businesses will need to last beyond the summer, particularly for those that will not open any time soon, such as nightclubs.
The MPs say Mr Sunak will present the furlough as an ‘offset’ to the tax rises.
He will deliver his second Budget on March 3, and is expected to ‘lay down markers’ for future tax rises to start balancing the books. Corporation tax is set to rise from next year from 19 to 24 per cent, in staggered stages. High earners are also likely to be hit.
An announcement is also expected on freeports, including naming the first ‘three or four’, a source said.
The Autumn Budget is expected to be used to announce tax rises to come in from 2022. The Treasury has spent more than £300billion supporting the economy through the pandemic, with Mr Sunak keen to tell MPs he will balance the books once the Covid crisis is over.
Raising revenue through an online tax, green taxes and property taxes in the long run have been mooted. These will struggle to match the three big revenue raisers – VAT, National Insurance and income tax – although the current consensus in the Government is to keep them ‘off the table’ in line with Boris Johnson’s manifesto pledge.
One insider warned that not increasing one of the ‘big three’ means ‘death by a thousand tax rises’ which ends up angering many different groups.
A Treasury source said: ‘It is not fair to frame the furlough as a sort of figleaf for tax rises.’
ONE of Scotland’s most senior police officers last night warned that the force will resist growing pressure from the SNP to impose checks at the Border, declaring: ‘We are a United Kingdom’.
Deputy Chief Constable Fiona Taylor – the second highest-ranking officer in Scotland – dismissed threats by Ministers to close the Border with England amid a constitutional row over Covid-19 quarantine measures.
In an exclusive interview with The Scottish Mail on Sunday, she said any plans to control the flow of people between the two home nations were doomed to fail because a number of people are dependent on being able to freely move from one to the other.
Ms Taylor added: ‘We are a United Kingdom and to try to intervene with that would not be particularly effective.’
A Border row broke out this month after the UK and Scottish
‘Plan would not be particularly effective’
Governments failed to agree on new quarantine measures.
Rules which came into force last Monday mean anyone returning to Scotland from abroad must isolate in a quarantine hotel for ten days – at a cost to travellers of £1,750 each.
In England, arrivals need only isolate if they have come from one of 33 ‘red list’ countries – those with the highest rates of infection.
We told last week how the differing rules had sparked fears travellers might fly into England and then take public transport over the Border to avoid having to quarantine.
Both First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said the only solution might be to enforce tougher measures – despite repeated assurances by Police Scotland’s Chief Constable Iain Livingstone that a hard Border between Scotland and England would not be put in place.
Echoing his stance, Ms Taylor said the force was instead focusing on having more officers on the Border to deter travellers rather than stopping people coming in and out of Scotland.
She added: ‘We have an enhanced visible presence on our arterial routes at the moment – in the Borders, in our city centres.
‘But there are no plans to be putting road checks on the Border to stop people passing between Scotland and England. For my colleagues in the Borders, many of them may live in Hawick or Jedburgh but their mum and dad may live just on the other side, in Ponteland for argument’s sake, and they may go to a doctor in Scotland and a dentist in England.
‘There’s so much travel between Scotland and England.’
Last week, Ms Sturgeon refused to rule out a border blockade.
She said border checks could become a reality but stressed that she did not believe it was ‘the best solution to have now’.
Ms Freeman also expressed her frustration that the UK Government was not looking to impose rules south of the Border as strict as those here in Scotland.
She said: ‘It’s deeply disappointing that, as part of a family of equals, one partner isn’t prepared to help the other partner enforce the policy they think is the right policy for the people they represent. We have to look at what we do about the land border because most international travel into Scotland is routed through the big hubs around London, Manchester and elsewhere.
‘We can’t have people coming in, getting on public transport, coming to Scotland. We have to consider what our options are about that land border.’
In December, Mr Livingstone said border checkpoints would not be ‘appropriate’ or ‘proportionate’ and instead promised to double police patrols on the Border to act as a deterrent.
Ms Taylor agreed, saying: ‘When it comes to... people passing from airports, we have Border Force, we have agencies, we have other government agencies who are responsible for immigration and things like that.
‘That’s not a Police Scotland responsibility in the main.’