Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, Anneliese Dodds, has today written to the Chancellor Rishi Sunak urging him to set out a six-month plan for economic support to go alongside coronavirus public health measures.
With the Prime Minister having announced a new nationwide lockdown on Saturday, the government has had to change the economic support package it offers to workers and businesses affected by the virus. This announcement was made just hours before the furlough scheme was due to end, and represents the fifth change of government policy in just four months.
Dodds is calling on Sunak to stop what she describes as a “last minute scramble” to keep pace with events and instead use this moment to set out a strategic, six-month plan that will give workers and businesses much-needed certainty. She has asked to meet the Chancellor to discuss this plan, and recommended that he meet with trade unions and businesses as well to work out the details.
In her letter, Dodds says that Saturday’s rushed announcement was “sadly symptomatic of what appears to be the lack of any strategic planning by your Government to support jobs and businesses”. She accuses Sunak of taking a “short-sighted approach” that is “making a bad situation worse”.
Dodds also sets out several areas that any long-term plan should cover, from the support available to areas of the country that remain under restrictions even after the nationwide lockdown to the need to protect the incomes of those who are not covered by recent announcements.
Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, said:
“The Chancellor’s stubborn refusal to address problems of his own making until the last possible minute is risking lives, costing jobs and causing chaos in the middle of a pandemic.
“Businesses need certainty if we’re to avoid a 1980s-style jobs crisis, not endless chopping and changing by a Chancellor who is always playing catch-up.
“The Chancellor must stop this last-minute scramble and use the moment of a national lockdown to set out a proper, strategic plan for the next six months that gives workers and businesses the certainty they need.”
