Boris Johnson used his daily coronavirus press conference to respond to the economic emergency the country is increasingly finding itself in. Accompanied by his Chancellor Rishi Sunak and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance, the Prime Minister said that he was aware the virus would severely impact the economy and that the government was focussed on mitigating this. In light of this, Johnson said: ‘We must act as a wartime government and do anything it takes it takes to support our economy’.
In a bid to do just this, Sunak unveiled an economic package of business loans worth over £330 billion. Following on from the Budget, the Chancellor described today’s announcement as ‘the next stage of our public health response’ and suggested there could be more to come. He also promised to do ‘whatever it takes’ and said that the level of the crisis meant this was ‘not a time for ideology and orthodoxy’.
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