Johnson’s Conservatives and the ‘Kickstart’ Back to Prosperity

In a Parliamentary response to the ongoing Coronavirus (C0VID-19) crisis of 2020, Rishi Sunak – the Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer – announced (in his Summer Economic Update) that the Government was going to ‘kickstart’ the economy by protecting, supporting and creating jobs. The Government, he argued, had a clear goal to ‘give businesses the confidence to retain and hire, to create jobs in every part of our country, to give young people a better start and to give people everywhere the opportunity of a fresh start’ (Sunak 8 July 2020: column 973).

To do this, the Government pushed through a financial package designed to help 16–24 year olds (BBC 8 July 2020; Gov.UK 8 July 2020; Kimber 8 July 2020) who are the most affected cohort by virtue of being ‘two and a half times as likely to work in a sector that has been closed’ (Sunak 8 July 2020: column 975). Support – starting in August 2020 – involved a predicted expenditure of £2 billion (Kuenssberg 7 July 2020; Parliament 8 July 2020; Partington 8 July 2020; Wilson and Shah 10 July 2020). Indeed for each ‘kickstart’ job, the Government pledged to cover the cost of at least ‘25 hours’ work a week at the National Minimum Wage of £4.55 …[per hour] for under 18s, £6.45 for 18 to 20-year-olds, and £8.20 for 21 to 24-year-olds’ (BBC, 8 July 2020: no page).

Moreover, Sunak (8 July 2020) also allocated £9 billion of support (by paying a £1,000 bonus per employee) to bring back all 9 million people who have been furloughed during the pandemic (Kimber 8 July 2020; Parliament 8 July 2020). However, for businesses to get the bonus each employee must be paid at least an average of £520 per month from November to January (Sunak 8 July 2020: column 974). In sum, this was the equivalent of the lower earnings limit in National Insurance. Sunak (8 July 2020) continued with these themes when he addressed traineeships and apprenticeships. Both, he voiced, would be the subject of further subsidised incentives to increase skill levels and create more work possibilities.