Rishi Sunak will be defined by recovery from recession – The Yorkshire Post says

The Richmond MP already faces an invidious task preparing for his next Budget in less than five weeks’ time when he will have to decide whether short-term support for firms and individuals is sustainable in the medium term.

Instinctively, he will want to do whatever it takes to help the private sector to recover from the pandemic, and a stop-start year of lockdowns, because they are instrumental to the country’s revival.

But this will mean that the Government’s Test and Trace programme is far more agile and adept at identifying new strains, and outbreaks, of Covid before nationwide lockdowns are required. The country needs to be ready to live and work with such viruses for the foreseeable future.

And it requires the Chancellor to make this a landmark Budget and define how he intends to tackle those regional inequalities that had already left Yorkshire on the wrong side of the North-South divide for a generation before the first case of Covid was detected a year ago.

That the economy is proving more resilient than the more pessimistic projections is testament to the ability of so many organisations, and families, to respond to these unique circumstances. However the unemployment rate now tops five per cent for the first time since 2016 and Mr Sunak does not need reminding that his entire Chancellorship will be defined by the success of measures to rebuild the economy.

Support The Yorkshire Post and become a subscriber today. Your subscription will help us to continue to bring quality news to the people of Yorkshire. In return, you’ll see fewer ads on site, get free access to our app and receive exclusive members-only offers. Click here to subscribe.