Sunak warns of hardship

When Rishi Sunak was appointed Chancellor in February, he must never have imagined that his first address to the Conservative party conference would be made to an empty room. Nor would he have expected to have his entire speech dominated by a pandemic. Yet in his short, direct address, Sunak barely strayed from Covid-19. He reminded the public of the government’s vast interventions to curb the impact of the virus — and hinted at what steps might be taken in future as the Treasury deals with the aftermath of our six month spending spree.

In a run-down of the many schemes — and billions of pounds — directed towards the crisis so far, Sunak once again prepared the public for the hardship to come: ‘I have always said I couldn’t protect every job or every business. No chancellor could. And even though I have said it, the pain of knowing it only grows with each passing day.’ 

Each passing day brings us closer to the end of the furlough scheme and the start of the jobs support scheme, which will see government and employers swap places, with the latter now responsible for covering more than 50 per cent of their employee wages.