Economic Update

Seema Malhotra Excerpts

Tuesday 17th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Rishi Sunak]

Hopefully it will benefit today from the significant measures that have been put in place to provide forward business rate relief and immediate cash support through grants. That should provide the business with some reassurance that help is on its way to enable it to protect jobs, with more to come.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

Yesterday a constituent of mine was laid off from his employment, along with 50 colleagues. He described how he watched the company’s owners trying to hold back tears as they let go people who have worked for them for decades. Why will the Chancellor not cut off this problem at the root by providing to British businesses the same reassurance that President Macron has provided to French businesses: that no business will go bankrupt?

[Rishi Sunak]

As I have already said, the French Government announced €300 billion of loan guarantees yesterday. We have gone a step further with £330 of loan guarantees, equivalent to 15% of our GDP, to provide the same level of support. Beyond that, the fiscal measures that we have taken between last week and today are comparable in scale to those undertaken by any major economy.