RISHI Sunak will lay out a fresh package of financial support to help businesses cope with the third national lockdown, Michael Gove said today.
The Cabinet minister said there would be “additional support for business” to get them through the seven-week shut-down.
He told Sky News: “The Chancellor (Sunak) will be saying a little bit more about additional support for business.”
The furlough scheme, which pays people 80 per cent of their wages, is already set to go on until the end of April.
But even more firms have had to shut in the latest national measures – including outdoor sports facilities like tennis courts and pools.
Pubs can no longer sell takeaway alcohol either.
The Chancellor has already spent more than £200billion on fiscal measures to keep the economy afloat during the crisis.
Last night Boris Johnson ordered everyone in England to stay at home until mid-February as he launched an emergency shutdown to try and save Britain’s NHS.
In a dramatic escalation in the fight against Covid, the PM ordered the closure of all schools and non-essential shops for at least the next six weeks.
The PM urged Brits to follow the third nationwide lockdown immediately, and once again put Brits under effective house arrest – resurrecting the ‘Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives slogan’.
And it was the new variant – which is between 50 and 70 per cent more transmissible – which has forced him to act.
Mr Johnson said people will only be allowed out of their homes to buy essential food and medicine supplies, attend medical appointments, exercise, work if it is critical and cannot be done from home and to provide care for a vulnerable person.
He also told the nation:
- People can only meet up for outside exercise with one other person from another household
- All outdoor team sports are banned except for elite sportsmen and kids still at school
- Playgrounds will remain open but outdoor gyms, tennis courts and golf courses will be closed once again
- Schools are set to stay shut across the nation until at least February half-term
- Nurseries, childcare centres and special schools will remain open
- Students will not be able to return to university and will be told to study remotely from their current residency until at least the middle of next month.
- GCSEs, A-Levels and some other exams are set to be cancelled – with further announcements due to come
- Pubs, restaurants, bars and most venues were already ordered to shut in every part of England apart from the Isles of Scilly last week and will remain closed for at least another month
- In a further blow to the battered industry, the new nationwide curbs will ban takeaway pints being served amid fears over punters clustering outside pubs. Food and non-alcohol takeaways will continue to be permitted
- In a boost for lonely Brits, support bubbles will remain in place – allowing single households to mix indoors with one other household
The PM said he was left with no option but to impose the third lockdown after being confronted with terrifying new data on how the new strain of Covid is rampaging through the country.
Chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty told him the mutant virus is now in every part of the UK.
