James Murray
Main Page: James Murray (Labour (Co-op) - Ealing North)Department Debates - View all James Murray's debates with the HM Treasury
(4 years ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Rishi Sunak
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is, in the long term, the market economy that will provide the growth and prosperity we need. It will provide the jobs that we need, but it is important that we provide support to those businesses in the short term, given the disruption they have faced, and I know his local businesses and many others will welcome the jobs retention bonus to help reward and incentivise them to do the right thing, stand by their workers at this time and bring them back, and look forward to a brighter future.
James Murray (Ealing North) (Lab/Co-op) [V]
On 25 June, a Treasury direction in relation to the coronavirus job retention scheme made it clear:
“Integral to the purpose of the CJRS”
is that the grant
“is used by the employer to continue the employment of employees”.
Will the Chancellor therefore confirm that British Airways would be liable to pay back any taxpayers’ money used to furlough staff the company chose to put on notice of redundancy during that furlough period?
Rishi Sunak
Procedures are in place for any employee to talk to HMRC if they believe that they themselves have been the victim of fraud or that the company for which they work has not acted in a way in keeping with the guidance. I urge any employees of any company who feel that that has happened to take up the matter via the HMRC hotline, the details of which are online.