Gordon Brown labels Rishi Sunak's Job Support Scheme 'outdated' amid warnings of double Covid-19 and Brexit cliff edge

Gordon Brown has criticised the UK Government’s replacement for furlough as “outdated” as the country faces increased measures to tackle Covid-19.

Gordon Brown has warned of the combined risk of Covid-19 and a no deal Brexit

The former Labour prime minister said the money to pay for an extension to the furlough scheme or another aspect of financial support would come from savings from not paying unemployment benefits and government borrowing.

Mr Brown pointed to the schemes in Germany and France as examples of the type of support needed, and said Chancellor Rishi Sunak has “failed this test now”.

He told Sky News: "When you've got 12 million people in lockdown probably, more jobs are going to go, more people are at risk of going poor and we’ve got to do something.

"The budget proposals of the Chancellor of a few weeks ago are now completely out of date. We’ve got to revisit them now.

“This is a one-in-a-century event. It is far bigger than the financial crisis I had to deal with in 2009, and extraordinary times require unprecedented measures.

"This is simply not a tolerable situation in a civilised society and the Chancellor must know now that his proposals of a month ago are being completely overtaken by the health problems that we've got.

"It cannot be right that the economic policy and the health policy are so at odds with each other.

Mr Brown said the threat of a no-deal Brexit meant the UK faced “two cliff edges”. He said that a deal with the EU “can be done and should be done” and would be in the interests of both parties.

Mr Brown said: “Is it possible to have two cliff edges because we’ve got a cliff edge on October 31 with the lockdown happening just as the furlough scheme is ending and we’ve now got a cliff edge over Europe.

"I do fear that if, on top of the loss of jobs and the loss of economic growth and therefore the suffering that people face as a result of unemployment, that if we have tariffs imposed on our goods and if we have this no-deal breakdown at the end of the year or even before the end of the year, then it is more suffering for people and it is completely unnecessary.”

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