Boris Johnson has hinted that the Chancellor Rishi Sunak could extend the furlough scheme until at least July.
The support packages are due to end on 30 April, but according to The Sun newspaper Sunak will move the deadline back on 3 March Budget.
The Prime Minister suggested on Monday that the furlough could be extended as he said, “we will not pull the rug out.”
He added, “For the duration of the pandemic the government will continue to do whatever it takes to protect jobs and livelihoods.”
Several Tory MPs have hit out over Johnson’s gradual easing of lockdown, as Steve Baker warned the “pace of change will be a hammer blow” to industries such as aviation, hospitality and the arts as tens of billions have been lost in revenue.
Sir Graham Brady, who is the Conservative chairman of the 1922 committee, argued the state power during lockdown “must be reversed and it must never happen again.”
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Sir Graham said, “We should recognise that these aren’t freedoms that belong to the state, they are freedoms we were lucky enough to be born with.
“The government has taken our freedoms away and they should be restored as quickly as can safely be done.”
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