• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
  • Guest Content
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home Politics

WATCH: Gordon Brown lashes out at Tories’ ‘intolerable’ pandemic economics

“This is simply not a tolerable situation in a civilised society, and the chancellor must know now that his proposals from a month ago have been completely overtaken by the health problems that we have," Brown s

Henry Goodwin by Henry Goodwin
2020-10-20 10:21
in Politics
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

Gordon Brown has lashed out at Rishi Sunak for pursuing “completely out of date” economic interventions in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking on Sky News this morning, the former prime minister said it “cannot be right” that “economic policy and health policy are so at odds with each other”.

It is the latest in a string of escalating attacks on Boris Johnson’s government by Brown who, earlier this week, backed Marcus Rashford’s campaign to secure free school meals for children during half-term and Christmas holidays.

Gordon Brown – How can a family budget if they're going to lose £100 of income overnight… this is simply not a tolerable situation in a civilised society… it cannot be right that the economic policy & health policy are so at odds with each other…#KayBurley pic.twitter.com/hF5sx2mZY5

— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) October 20, 2020

“What is the price we will pay for leaving young people without jobs for months and for years,” Brown said on Tuesday morning. “How can a family budget for the future if they’re going to lose £100 of income overnight?

“This is simply not a tolerable situation in a civilised society, and the chancellor must know now that his proposals from a month ago have been completely overtaken by the health problems that we have.

“We’ve got a bigger health problem, and we’ve got smaller government support. It cannot be right that the economic policy and the health policy are so at odds with each other.”

‘Hour of greatest need’

Asked by Kay Burley whether he would “borrow [his] way out” of the pandemic, Brown said that “every country” is facing the same issue. 

“If we fail to support people in their hour of greatest need, the cost that we pay for unemployment – the mental health cost, the health cost, the cost of lost skills and capacity in the years to come – are even greater than what we will have to pay to stay in jobs.

“I do believe that you are rerunning debates from ten years ago, and it was not right ten years ago not to help people out of recession, and it isn’t right now to deny the help that is necessary.”

RelatedPosts

Boris Johnson told ‘a lie’ over Putin missile attack claims, says Kremlin

Penny Mordaunt favourite to become Tory Chairman

Watch: Nadhim Zahawi’s ‘villain origin story’ unearthed

Johnson and Lee Anderson touted as early candidates to replace Zahawi

Brown’s intervention comes as Labour said it will force a parliamentary vote on the extension of free school meals to eligible children, after the government repeatedly refused to extend the scheme through the October half-term break.

Labour will table a motion calling on the government to continue directly funding free school meals over the holidays until Easter 2021 to “prevent over a million children going hungry during the coronavirus crisis”.

‘Put food on the table’

The party said in a statement MP Tulip Siddiq, the shadow minister for children and early years, wrote to all Conservative backbench MPs asking them to support Labour’s proposals.

“Over a million children are at risk of going hungry over the holidays without access to free school meals. It is essential the Government provides this support urgently,” Labour’s shadow education secretary Kate Green said.

“We gave the Prime Minister the chance to change course, but he refused to do so. Now his MPs must decide if they want to vote for their constituents to get this vital support or if they will leave families struggling to put food on the table.”

A parliamentary petition started by Rashford, calling for food to be provided during all holidays and for free school meals to be expanded to all households on Universal Credit, has garnered more than 293,000 signatures since being launched late last week.

Rashford, who has been made an MBE for his services to vulnerable children, forced a Government U-turn on free school meal vouchers for eligible pupils over the summer holidays.

The fact his petition attracted more than 100,000 signatures means it must now be considered for debate by MPs, under Parliamentary petition guidelines.

However, Downing Street has shown reluctance to extend the scheme, with a spokesman indicating on Thursday that ministers would not provide free school meals to children in England during the Christmas break.

A Number 10 spokesman said: “It’s not for schools to regularly provide food to pupils during the school holidays.”

Labour said more than 1.44 million children who were eligible for free school meals would benefit if the scheme was extended.

Related: Greater Manchester offered just £8 per head to deal with new coronavirus controls

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending
Abdollah

‘Rescue us’: Afghan teacher begs UK to help him escape Taliban

CHOMSKY: “If Corbyn had been elected, Britain would be pursuing a much more sane course”

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

More from TLE

How To Make: Chocolate Biscuit Salami

Post-Brexit food shortages ‘worst I’ve seen’, Co-op boss says

Captain Sir Tom Moore: My funeral would once have made a line in the local paper

Watch: Festive makeover for selfless volunteers who help families all year round

Premier League to meet as Arteta and Hudson-Odoi test positive for coronavirus

Zahawi being probed on his tax affairs as chancellor makes for painful viewing

Jon Trickett calls for wealth tax after superyacht sales and food bank use simultaneously rocket

The Week in Movies: November 19th – 25th 2018

‘It will disappear’: Trump’s most controversial coronavirus quotes

Watch: Don’t look up and real life interview are basically the same thing

JOBS

FIND MORE JOBS

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Commercial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.