Trump’s travel ban won’t have much impact on spread of coronavirus, says Rishi Sunak

No 10 set to announce feasibility study into bridge linking Scotland to Northern Ireland, says minister

Alistair Jack, the Scottish secretary, told BBC Radio Scotland this morning that Boris Johnson will soon announce a feasiblity study into plans for bridge linking Scotland to Northern Ireland. In an interview this morning, asked why there was no money for the plan in the budget, he replied: “Watch this space.” He went on:

The prime minister I expect will announce a feasibility study into the link to Northern Ireland, I hope the Scottish government will back it.

Johnson has a fondness for extravagant infrastructure schemes and he has repeatedly expressed interest in a bridge linking Scotland and Northern Ireland, despite experts dismissing the idea as impractical. Jack has suggested that the scheme could involve a combination of tunnel and bridge.

The Resolution Foundation thinktank has this morning published a 60-page analysis of the budget (pdf). And it has been posting some highlights on a Twitter thread starting here.

Here are the main points from Rishi Sunak’s morning interview round.

Sunak, the chancellor, criticised President Trump’s flight ban announcement, saying that the UK government’s view was that measures like this would not have much impact on the spread of coronavirus. (See 8.55am.)

He accepted that the flight ban would have an impact on the UK economy. Asked on the Today programme if it would have a negative impact on the economy, he accepted that it would, although in his answer he focused on making a general point about the negative economic impact of coronavirus. He said:

The US is still deciding the details of what exactly that means, but you are right. As I talked about yesterday, there will be an impact on the demand side of our economy as people are unable to spend in the way they normally would and travel, but it also affects the supply chains for businesses and that impacts the supply side of our economy.

As those supply chains are disrupted, the productive capacity of our economy will shrink for a period of time.

He dismissed claims that his spending plans were irresponsible. He said:

I make absolutely no apology for responding in the short term in scale to the immediate threat that we face from coronavirus.

I think that’s the right thing to do for the economy, we need to help businesses have a bridge to get to the other side.

In the medium term, as you will see from the figures, there is actually responsible economic management and it’s because we’ve had responsible economic management for several years that I’m able to stand here in a strong position to say that we will do whatever it takes to get through this.

He said that his measures were compatible with the fiscal rules set out in the Conservative manifesto.

He laughed off suggestions that he had delivered a Gordon Brown budget, or a Labour budget. When LBC’s Nick Ferrari put this to him, Sunak laughed, and said he would let others make that judgment.

He suggested that Jeremy Corbyn’s resignation as Labour leader was holding up the announcement of plans for reform of social care. When asked about the absence of social care from the budget, he said that Matt Hancock, the health secretary, wrote to MPs last week proposing cross-party talks starting in May. When it was put to him that the government was taking a long time, particularly since Boris Johnson claimed to have a plan for social care last summer, Sunak replied:

There is no permanent leader of the opposition at the moment. They’re having a leadership contest, so we can’ formally start that process until they have one.

Sunak defended his decision not to extend sick pay to cover the low-paid and the self-employed. In the budget he said that people in these categories would instead find it easier to claim benefits as a result of rules being relaxed during the coronavirus outbreak. This morning he said:

For those that don’t [have access to statutory sick pay] we’ve strengthened the working of our welfare system so that it works quicker, more responsibly and more generously for those people.

He also claimed that around half of workers who needed to take time off would get more than statutory sick pay because of their employers offered more generous arrangements.

He sidestepped a question about whether he and his family would be able to live on £90 per week themselves. Statutory sick pay is worth £94.25 per week. Asked if that was enough to live on, he replied:

We have strengthened our safety net to make sure we have access to benefits easier, quicker, more generously, and also provided an extra £500m to local authorities to distribute to vulnerable people and their local communities if they need extra support.

When pressed on whether he could live on this himself, he said:

This is a safety net. That is what it’s there for, to provide people to fall back on. It’s obviously not the same as your day to day life

He defended his decision not to include nurseries in the list of companies that will qualify for a one-year exemption from business rates. The nursery sector has been horrified by the decision. Asked why they were not included, Sunak said:

Because what we’ve done on business rates is target the sectors of the economy which are in the consumption side of the economy, which will see a very significant hit because of people’s inability to spend. And what we wanted to do is make sure that they don’t go out of business during that period of time.

He accepted that his plans involved making an assumption about the cost of borrowing remaining low, but it was a judgement he defended. He said:

You have to make a judgment about the persistence of low interest rates, that’s a judgment I have to make as chancellor.

The reality is these interest rates have stayed lower for longer than anyone expected and keep falling, and it’s right that I as someone in charge of managing our public finances has a view on that.