Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen
10.02am GMT
Here are the main points from Rishi Sunak‘s morning interview round.
The US is still deciding the details of what exactly that means, but you are right. As I talked about yesterday, there will be an impact on the demand side of our economy as people are unable to spend in the way they normally would and travel, but it also affects the supply chains for businesses and that impacts the supply side of our economy.
As those supply chains are disrupted, the productive capacity of our economy will shrink for a period of time.
I make absolutely no apology for responding in the short term in scale to the immediate threat that we face from coronavirus.
I think that’s the right thing to do for the economy, we need to help businesses have a bridge to get to the other side.
There is no permanent leader of the opposition at the moment. They’re having a leadership contest, so we can’ formally start that process until they have one.
For those that don’t [have access to statutory sick pay] we’ve strengthened the working of our welfare system so that it works quicker, more responsibly and more generously for those people.
We have strengthened our safety net to make sure we have access to benefits easier, quicker, more generously, and also provided an extra £500m to local authorities to distribute to vulnerable people and their local communities if they need extra support.
This is a safety net. That is what it’s there for, to provide people to fall back on. It’s obviously not the same as your day to day life
Because what we’ve done on business rates is target the sectors of the economy which are in the consumption side of the economy, which will see a very significant hit because of people’s inability to spend. And what we wanted to do is make sure that they don’t go out of business during that period of time.
You have to make a judgment about the persistence of low interest rates, that’s a judgment I have to make as chancellor.
The reality is these interest rates have stayed lower for longer than anyone expected and keep falling, and it’s right that I as someone in charge of managing our public finances has a view on that.
9.29am GMT
Stock markets around the wall are down following President Trump’s travel ban announcement. My colleague Graeme Wearden the all the details on his business live blog.
Related: Stock markets tumble as Trump’s Europe travel ban shocks investors – business live
Source: Trump’s travel ban won’t have much impact on spread of coronavirus, says Rishi Sunak – live news
Category: Politics, UK news, Budget 2020, Budget, Rishi Sunak, Coronavirus outbreak
