Coronavirus news – live: Rishi Sunak warned that £30bn mini-budget is postponing unemployment crisis as global cases pass 12 million
Rishi Sunak has been warned that the emergency measures in his £30bn “mini-budget” could merely postpone the looming unemployment crisis, as he attempts to sweeten the blow of ending the government’s furlough scheme in October with a £1,000-per-employee bonus for firms to take back workers.
As the country reacted to his plans to slash stamp duty and VAT, and to dole out 50 per cent-off restaurant vouchers to the entire population, the chancellor admitted that there are still forecasts “predicting significant levels of unemployment”, adding: “That weighs very heavily on me.”
Meanwhile, coronavirus cases topped 12 million worldwide – a quarter of which have been identified in the US – as Melbourne was forced back into lockdown, with police pledging to set up a “ring of steel” around the city, with “checkpoints anytime and anywhere” after the state recorded a daily rise of nearly 200 cases.
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