Overview
- Giving evidence to module 9 on the economic response, the former chancellor outlined decisions on furlough and the Eat Out to Help Out scheme.
- He argued the measures prevented "mass unemployment," noting furlough supported about 11.7 million jobs at an estimated cost of £70bn.
- He denied the dining discount "drove a second wave" of infections, despite research indicating an 8% to 17% rise in cases where the scheme operated.
- He recounted severe market stress in spring 2020, preparations to use the Treasury’s ways and means facility, and the Bank of England’s £200bn QE expansion to stabilise gilts.
- The session follows inquiry findings that a chaotic early response under No 10 contributed to thousands of avoidable deaths and that locking down a week earlier could have saved over 20,000 lives in England.