Coronavirus: 'Unprecedented' move as government steps in to pay 80 per cent of wages

THE chancellor Rishi Sunak has said the government will pay 80 per cent of wages for employees who are not working - up to £2,500 a month.
Rishi Sunak. PA Video/PA WireRishi Sunak. PA Video/PA Wire
Rishi Sunak. PA Video/PA Wire

The ‘unprecedented’ measures are part of government plans to protect people's jobs with many already having lost their jobs or about to be made redundant as coronavirus grips the nation.

Mr Sunak said: ‘Today I can announce that for the first time in our history the government is going to step in and pay people's wages.

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‘The government is doing its best to stand behind you and I'm asking you to do your best to stand behind our workers.’

Meanwhile, prime minister Boris Johnson, addressing the country in his daily press conference, said pubs, cafes and restaurants should close today (Friday), with nightclubs, theatres, cinemas, gyms and leisure centres urged to shut their doors ‘as soon as they reasonably can’.

There have been 167 deaths in England from the coronavirus.