Rishi Sunak’s furlough lifeline will come with a taxing price– John McLellan

With so many local businesses reliant on the visitor economy, the prospect of 14-day quarantine for travellers to the UK means any chance of a full recovery this year has all but gone and without the furlough scheme thousands of people would face a substantial loss in their income which would then have a knock-on effect on the wider economy.

As Chancellor Rishi Sunak was gearing up for his announcement, the opposition were gearing up for a scrap based on the expectation he would be drawing the scheme to a close, so the decision left them scrabbling around for reasons to complain.

But as the cost of the Covid-19 emergency gets set to break the £300bn barrier the work is obviously starting now to prepare the working population for higher taxes to pay for it.

But it also means that higher taxes on top of higher taxes to pay for idealistic experiments like the Universal Citizens Income are even more undesirable than they were before.

For all the criticism of the UK Government’s change of message over the weekend, it’s clear the UK Government is stepping up to the plate to protect the economy in the face of the biggest crash since the South Sea Bubble of 1720.