Britain PM resists calls to extend wages for workers affected by COVID-19

LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is resisting calls to extend a government programme that has paid the wages of millions of workers laid off during the coronavirus lockdown.

Since April, the government has paid 80% of the salaries of furloughed employees.

The programme has supported almost 10 million workers but is due to end on October 31.

Opposition parties have called for its extension.

Scottish National Party lawmaker Ian Blackford says failing to do so would bring “levels of unemployment last seen under [Prime Minister Margaret] Thatcher in the early 1980s.”

Answering questions in the House of Commons, Johnson says the government had spent 40 billion pounds ($53 billion) on the programme but continuing it indefinitely would keep workers “in suspended animation.”

Johnson says, “indefinite furlough is just not the answer.”

He says the government was helping people with other programmes, including a “Kickstart scheme” that will subsidise companies to hire young people.

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