UK Government "ready to help" but won't guarantee furlough if Wales goes it alone with future lockdown
The UK Government says it will always be ready to help with business support to Wales - but has stopped short of promising to fund furlough schemes if devolved governments introduce future lockdowns of their own.
It follows a row sparked by apparently contradictory statements from the Prime Minister and another UK minister after the UK Government extended the UK-wide furlough scheme to coincide with England's lockdown.
On Monday, Boris Johnson told the Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross that "if other parts of the UK decide to go into measures which require the furlough scheme, then of course it's available to them, that has to be right - and that applies not just now, but of course in the future as well."
But the Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said in interviews on Tuesday that any extension beyond December is “a decision the Chancellor will have to make at the time."
The First Minister Mark Drakeford tweeted that "We take the PM at his word and would expect him to instruct any Chancellor in a Government led by him to do the same”, while Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon called for urgent clarity.
In the Commons today, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Steve Barclay was challenged by opposition politicians and some on his own side.
SNP’s Treasury spokesperson Alison Thewliss said: “When Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland and parts of the north-east of England asked for furlough to be extended this autumn, they were told the Chancellor's magic money tree had lost all its leaves.
"But yet when the Prime Minister decided that England needed to go into urgent lockdown, it turned out the magic money tree was, in fact, an evergreen.”
She and the Conservative former Scottish Secretary David Mundell called for a guarantee that if any devolved government decided on a future lockdown, they would get furlough on the same terms as it is operated currently - paying 80 per cent of a worker’s wages.
Labour’s Tonia Antoniazzi and Plaid Cymru’s Ben Lake made similar challenges.
In response to that and other criticism, Steve Barclay said that there had been no gap between different schemes and that "furlough has always been a UK-wide scheme and, as the Prime Minister has said, the Government will always be there to provide support for all parts of the United Kingdom."
He also that there would also be extra funding announced this week through an increase in the money which goes from Westminster to the devolved nations via the Barnett formula.
“We will also uplift the Barnett guarantee this week to give Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland further certainty over their upfront funding,” he said.
Number 10 has also tried to dampen the row, but also stopped short of guaranteeing extending furlough if Wales or Scotland chose to go into lockdowns without England introducing similar restrictions.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “If other parts of the UK decide to go into measures which require direct economic support, of course we will make that available to them."
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