Rushanara Ali

It is 75 years since the East End celebrated VE Day – victory in Europe over the forces of fascism. East End families had more to celebrate than most. Not only did thousands serve in the army, navy and airforce, thousands more served on the home front, as air raid wardens, fire fighters, in munitions factories, and in hundreds of other roles.

The coronavirus pandemic has sent global markets into turmoil and the detrimental impact on the global economy continues to evolve at an unprecedented speed. Global supply chains have been disrupted, local economies have been wrecked by businesses collapsing, and millions have lost their jobs. Those countries with developing economies will be hit the hardest.

The Government’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme currently provides lenders with a guarantee of 80% of the outstanding balance on each loan provided to SME’s. Following pressure from Labour and other opposition party MPs, the Chancellor updated the scheme so that personal guarantees cannot be taken for facilities less than £250k, and that people’s primary residences are not allowed to be taken as security under the scheme.  

Hundreds of thousands of workers, across all sectors, are being failed by the Government’s Job Retention Scheme, designed to help companies hit by the Covid-19 crisis. Treasury Select Committee member Rushanara Ali, MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, has written to the Chancellor demanding urgent action before hundreds of thousands are thrown into even greater financial difficulty.

On 15 April 2020, the Government changed the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme by extending the eligibility date to 19 March 2020, which means that anyone reported on payroll by 19 March is now eligible to be furloughed. However, the Government also announced that employers have to have logged RTI submissions with HMRC and added employees to payroll by this date, a practice that commonly falls to the end of each month.