Rishi Sunak: Education and apprenticeships hold key to recovery

Rishi Sunak says he is looking at “a full range” of options, including changes to the Apprenticeship Levy, so a ‘lost generation’ of young people do not have their futures defined by the crisis.

Speaking during a constituency visit to Northallerton to support newly-reopened shops, he also revealed that the plight of the newly-unemployed did give him sleepless nights.

Mr Sunak only became Chancellor in February – weeks before the Budget and Covid-19 lockdown. Now it is feared that unemployment could reach three million when his ‘furlough’ job retention scheme ends.

“This lockdown has had an enormous impact on our economy and it is going to mean a really challenging job market, particularly for our youngest who are entering it for the first time whether they are leaving school, college or university,” he said.

“I’ve spent a lot of time on that, figuring out how best to help them and everyone else who might be in the unfortunate position of losing their job as a result of this.”

Mr Sunak, MP for Richmond, is due to deliver a major statement to Parliament next month on the UK’s recovery plan. A cut to VAT is reportedly being considered as Leeds West MP Rachel Reeves, a senior Shadow Cabinet member, calls for “a back to work budget” to combat a deepening recession.

Mr Sunak’s intervention comes after a £1bn catch-up tutoring fund for disadvantaged pupils was launched. “In general, I’m looking at a range of different things,” he went on before promising to study the call by Justine Greening, a former Education Secretary, in The Yorkshire Post last Saturday to help firms retain apprentices.

“There are different paths into work, and apprenticeships are a great path into it, and how we make sure we support companies to create those kinds of opportunities for young people, and for those who are going to be newly unemployed as a result of all of this. The full range of things, I’m having a look at.”

Mr Sunak accepted that the Government had to work harder to deliver the promises made at the 10 Downing Street daily press conferences. “It’s all very well standing up there and saying things, what matters is that support going to the people we want it to get to, (and) as quickly as possible, before it is too late,” he said.

Educated at Winchester College, he studied Oxford University before pursuing a career in the City. Education and skills policy, he went on, is a great motivation.

“I wouldn’t be sitting here if it wasn’t for the fact I benefited from an extraordinary education,” disclosed the Chancellor who succeeded William Hague as Richmond MP in 2015.

“My view is it is probably the most important thing that we can do to provide opportunity for people is to furnish them with an absolutely brilliant education. That doesn’t just mean just at schools, it means potentially all the way through their life.”

He added: “In public policy, there are no silver bullets, but as much as there is one, my broad view is that education is about the closest thing we have to it. That’s why I got into politics.”

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