Mon, 15 Dec 2025

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 Furlough not perfect but prevented mass unemployment, Sunak says

The former PM, who was chancellor during the crisis, says there was no "playbook" of how to respond to the pandemic.

* He said it wasn't possible to save every person's job during the pandemic, but the government was successful in preventing mass unemployment.
* The impact on employment was "considerably better than what anyone had forecast at the early stages of the pandemic".
* There was no playbook for dealing with the economic shock caused by Covid-19, and ministers were dealing with something unprecedented.
* Sunak said that at the outbreak of the crisis, there was an "enormous amount of uncertainty" about the virus's scale and duration.
* He defended the furlough scheme, saying it helped to prevent mass unemployment and protect living standards for vulnerable people.
* Sunak admitted that there were challenges with targeting support for self-employed workers, but said it was right to provide help.
* He acknowledged that some policy measures, such as the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, may not have been effective, but defended others like furlough.
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