Supercharged Sunak, the man with a plan

SOMETIMES a politician cuts through the spin and waffle and tells it like it is. Yesterday, Rishi Sunak did just that.

The Chancellor rose in the Commons to unveil his latest stimulus aimed at pulling the economy through the Covid-19 crisis.

But he began with the bigger picture, pointing out the UK Government’s furlough scheme has kept millions of Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish workers in a job.

‘No nationalist can ignore the undeniable truth,’ he told MPs. ‘This help has only been possible because we are a United Kingdom.’

At last someone said it. If Scotland had left the UK in 2014, we would be facing this virus alone, without the financial lifeline guaranteed by pooling and sharing our resources with 61million others.

The SNP would rather we did not reflect upon these grim realities, for it underlines what a dangerous delusion the party’s continuing bid for Scexit represents.

During the referendum, the Nationalists assured us a separate Scotland could fund its social security system with plentiful oil revenues. Barely had we voted No than the Brent Crude price collapsed and Scots caught a bracing glimpse of what might have been had the vote gone the other way. Covid-19 has been a reminder on a much larger scale.

Nationalists try to portray the Union as something that holds Scotland back but the past few months have vividly captured the truth: the Union is the best insurance policy ever devised.

The Chancellor is right to say that ‘this crisis has highlighted the special bond which holds our country together’.

He has demonstrated that not only in word but in coin. In pointing out some harsh facts to the separatists, Mr Sunak has spoken for millions of Scots bone-tired of their fiscal fantasies.

And he did so with some breathtaking fiscal largesse of his own.

He’s offering your employer a cash bonus to keep you in work after furlough.

If you’re in the leisure or hospitality business, he’ll cut your VAT by a whopping 75 per cent. And he’ll even treat you to half the cost of a family meal out.

This was supercharged Sunak, the man with a plan to get Britain moving again.

With his trademark positivity and engaging manner, Mr Sunak was seeking to shift Britain’s dial, from a country cowering in the shadow of coronavirus to one with the confidence to start working and spending again.

It was bold. It was imaginative. It was comprehensive – and in the coming months we are set to discover if it will work.