Tories furious at Chancellor’s scheme to cut back furlough
BORIS Johnson is resisting mounting demands from within his own party to boost the latest furlough scheme amid fears of mass unemployment.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak last week said the Government would pay two-thirds of the wages for workers whose firms were legally forced to close, which is less than the original scheme due to end at Halloween.
It has outraged some Tories. Former Northern Powerhouse Minister Jake Berry said the Government must “stand behind people and businesses”, and Conservative mayor for Tees Valley, Ben Houchen, demanded more support for areas where businesses were not closed, but were still hit.
After Liverpool was placed in Tier 3, metro mayor Steve Rotheram, city mayor Joe Anderson and the leaders of the region’s six councils said: “There are some things upon which we have been able to agree with the Government, but others where we do not, such as the level of the furlough scheme.”
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford said: “Just as health restrictions are being strengthened, economic support is weakened.”
But Mr Johnson told MPs the Government was expanding its “unprecedented economic support”.