Covid-19 Update Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

Covid-19 Update

Bill Esterson Excerpts
Monday 2nd November 2020

(3 years, 4 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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There are many estimates of the economic impact that the country has already sustained and many projections of the losses in employment that we, alas, expect. Against them, we must set the tragic loss of life that would inevitably ensue if the House failed to act on Wednesday.

Bill Esterson Portrait Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab) [V]
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It has been 33 weeks since the start of the first lockdown. In that time, one in 20 people who are part of the working population have had no work, but have been ineligible for furlough, self-employed financial support and business grants and loans. What is the Prime Minister’s message to the millions of people who have had no financial support about how they should put food on the table for their families?

Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman, because he raises a very important point. We have put another £9 billion into the welfare system, principally by uprating universal credit, and that will go through to next year, as he knows.