Government Says Public Health Is More Important Than The Economy

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said the public's health is more important than the economy.

Sunak said in today's briefing: "The best thing we can do protect the health of our economy is to protect the health of our people.

"It's not a case of choosing between the economy and public health. Common sense tells us that doing so would be self defeating."

He made the statement, after the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) today released a report which suggest that the UK economy could shrink by as much as 35 percent due to the pandemic.

Sunak warned: "We can't protect every business and every household."

PA

However, he went on to say that the country was in a strong financial position before the pandemic and that the UK would 'bounce back'.

Sunak said he believes the UK will 'recover quickly and strongly'.

He stressed the importance of staying safe and well, saying that the most important thing to protect the economy is to stay healthy.

And added that the OBR had been 'clear' that the situation would be a 'much worse' had it not been for the action the government has taken so far.

Earlier today Sunak told the BBC earlier today: "Well the OBR's independent of Government and as they've said this is just one potential scenario, but I think three points.

"I think firstly, look, it's clear this will have a very significant impact on our economy and (like) common with economies around the world and it's important that we're honest about that.

"People should know that there's hardship ahead. We won't be able to protect every job or every business as I've said.

"The second point, it's clear that the report makes clear that the actions we've taken, unprecedented actions will help to mitigate the impact of the virus on our economy and if we hadn't done these things, it would mean that things were a lot worse, for example the impact on unemployment.

"And the last point to make, is it's clear we must defeat this virus as quickly as possible. That's not a choice between health and economics, that defies common sense. What we need is just to follow the rules and I'm grateful to everyone for doing that over the Easter weekend."

Elsewhere in the briefing Prof Stephen Powis, national medical director at NHS England said there was some evidence that hospital admissions in London and the Midlands - the two areas worst hit by the outbreak - were 'plateauing'.

Powis said: "We need to keep it that way, we need to keep the benefits going forward and we can't take our foot off the pedal now."

Adding that if we continue to follow the advice: "We will get on top of this virus."

According to the Department of Health and Social Care as of 9am this morning [14 April] there has been 98,973 confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK.

And as of 5pm 13 April, 12,107 have sadly died.

Topics: Coronavirus

Claire Reid

Claire is a journalist at LADbible who, after dossing around for a few years, went to Liverpool John Moores University. She graduated with a degree in Journalism and a whole load of debt. When not writing words in exchange for money she is usually at home watching serial killer documentaries surrounded by cats. You can contact Claire at [email protected]

@ClaireReid19