BORIS Johnson has dismissed demands to adopt a three-pronged approach to the UK’s economic recovery.
The Prime Minister was pressed by the SNP to extend furlough and extra benefit payments beyond September. He was also urged to ban “fire and rehire” practices among businesses.
It came after the Tory leader confirmed his government would launch a full public inquiry into the handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
SNP deputy Westminster leader Kirsten Oswald, responding in the Commons, said: “I was interested to hear the Prime Minister committing to an inquiry. He’ll be aware the First Minister already committed to this and of course the devolved administrations have tailored their decisions to their needs.”
She pointed to new figures from the Office for National Statistics which show the UK’s economy shrank by 1.5% in the first quarter of the year.
“The Prime Minister has just spoken of lessons and answers and timing,” Oswald said. “This morning’s ONS figures demonstrate the depth of the plummet that’s being experienced by the economy and equally show the scale of the recovery needed. That’s why the glaring omission of an employment bill from the Queen’s Speech was so shocking – a clear signal of a UK Government with no recovery plan.”
The SNP MP urged Johnson to confirm three concrete measures to “kickstart the economy and help those still in need”.
She demanded that he U-turn on plans to abandon the furlough scheme in September, which she warned will result in a “damaging cliff edge” for millions of workers.
The Prime Minister was then told to commit to extending the £20 Universal Credit uplift beyond September. “Is he really going to rip that lifeline away from the most vulnerable when they most need it?” Oswald asked.
Finally, she implored the PM to introduce legislation to scrap the “disgraceful practice” of “fire and rehire” in the UK.
READ MORE: Boris Johnson announces public inquiry into UK's handling of Covid pandemic
Johnson refused to commit to any of the measures, but insisted his government was determined to go from “jabs, jabs, jabs to jobs, jobs, jobs”.
He continued: “She [Oswald] talks about kick-starting employment and recovery, actually we have, as she knows, for young people the £2 billion Kickstart programme to get 18-24-year-olds into work, the Restart programme for those that are long-term unemployed.
“Our campaign … is to the use the resources of the state, as we have done throughout the pandemic, to get people into work.”
He added: “We’re now going through a massive programme of investment in infrastructure across the whole of the UK to get people into work and I hope that she will support that.”
Oswald’s appeal follows proposals from SNP MP Gavin Newlands to ban companies from using “fire and rehire” tactics on their employees.
He tabled an emergency bill last year after British Airways reportedly planned to make all 42,000 of its staff redundant before rehiring 30,000 of them on worse contracts.
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