Covid-19 Update Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

Covid-19 Update

Douglas Ross Excerpts
Monday 2nd November 2020

(3 years, 5 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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The hon. Lady makes an excellent point; I am glad that she cited the amount that we have already invested in social care. We do indeed intend to use this moment to deliver long-lasting reform of social care in this country.

Douglas Ross Portrait Douglas Ross (Moray) (Con)
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The Prime Minister is right: the furlough scheme is UK-wide for the next month. But the crucial answer that we need is whether it will be available to other nations of the United Kingdom if, in future, the science demands that further lockdowns are required anywhere in the country. If he cannot give that commitment, will he explain why it seems that an English job is more important than a Welsh, Northern Irish or Scottish one?

Boris Johnson Portrait The Prime Minister
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I am grateful to my hon. Friend, but I must repeat what I have said several times already this afternoon: the furlough scheme is a UK-wide scheme. If other parts of the UK decide to go into measures that require the furlough scheme, then of course it is available to them. That has to be right. That applies not just now but of course in the future as well.