Ten billion? Twenty billion? Thirty billion? To borrow a phrase from the American senator Everett Dirksen when scrutinising the escalating costs of the military, ‘pretty soon you are talking about real money.’ Chancellor Rishi Sunak has already thrown huge sums of money at rescuing the economy. He may well spend a lot more over the next few weeks. You can argue about the rights and wrongs of that. But one thing is already becoming clear, and the more you pause to think about it the more worrying it becomes. It is already looking like he has hugely miscalculated the cost.
Figures out today suggest that up to half the UK workforce may be furloughed on the Government job retention scheme, under which staff can be paid 80 per cent of their salary up to £2,500 a month and their employer can claim the cost back from the Treasury.
According to the British Chambers of Commerce 44 per cent of companies plan for at least half their staff to be furloughed.
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