Rishi Sunak has been told to come out of hiding to rescue stricken hospitality and entertainment businesses, after it emerged he is abroad while omicron lays waste to Christmas bookings.
Labour and business leaders joined forces to demand the chancellor put forward an urgent package to compensate for customers being urged to cut back on socialising as infections soar.
Pubs, hotels and restaurants are predicting a 40 per cent plunge in takings – and twice that in London – while a former head of the Royal National Theatre warned of a crisis for the entertainment sector.
The Treasury says it has no plans to provide further financial support and has ruled out bringing back the furlough scheme, despite the fast-deteriorating situation.
Wes Streeting, Labour’s shadow health secretary, said: “It’s frankly inexplicable that the chancellor and the business secretary are nowhere to be seen.
“What they ought to be doing is getting business leaders and trade unionists around the table, as they have done at different points throughout the pandemic, to thrash out a package of support measures for these industries.”
Help with business rates and “action on statutory sick pay, so that when workers are forced to isolate at home, they can afford to do so”, was desperately needed, he told BBC Radio 4.
Rachel Reeves, after Wednesday night’s Downing Street press conference – at which the public was told to cut back on Christmas events – tweeted: “Where is the Chancellor?”
“It is quite staggering that, despite the obvious implications of the government’s rhetoric, we haven’t heard a squeak out of HM Treasury,” said Michael Kill, the head of the Night Time Industries Association.
It then emerged that Mr Sunak is in California for most of the week, “on a long-planned trip conducting government business”, a Treasury spokesperson said.
On Wednesday, the chief medical officer Chris Whitty urged people not to mix at events unless they “really matter to them” and Boris Johnson also urged caution before going out.
The decision not to impose legal restrictions – under pressure from rebellious Tory MPs – means he is under less pressure to bail out firms with another support package.
But the head of the Resolution Foundation thinktank, Torsten Bell, said: “If you’re telling people to avoid hospitality, it doesn’t matter if you’re not banning them from doing so: restaurants, pubs, bars are going to get stuffed. They’ll lose customers and workers will lose their jobs.”
However, Gillian Keegan, a health minister, defended the situation, telling BBC Radio 4: “Businesses are open – we haven’t closed them.
She agreed that customers are cancelling bookings, but insisted: “We do still have in place quite a lot of support for business.”
Both a VAT cut to 12.5 per cent for hospitality firms, and a wider reduction in business rates, continue until the end of March.
