The Conservatives’ threat to cut the furlough scheme shows the logic of austerity endures

Rather than forcing workers to pay the price of the crisis, the government should borrow and tax the wealthy.

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson (R) and Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak attend a news conference to give a daily update on the government's response to the novel coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak, inside 10 Downing Street in London on March 20, 2020. - Britain's government Friday rolled out a series of extra measures including direct grants to cover wages of employees who have been temporarily furloughed, as it ordered cafes, pubs and restaurants to close entirely. (Photo by JULIAN SIMMONDS / POOL / AFP) (Photo by JULIAN SIMMONDS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

The post-Covid-19 war on the working class has begun early. Rishi Sunak wants to wind down the Job Retention Scheme, which has paid 80 per cent of the wages up to £2,500 a month of 6.3 million people, in July. “People are addicted to the scheme,” a senior government source briefed the Times: with a current price tag of £8bn a month the policy has been deemed not “sustainable”.

Meanwhile, the leaked back-to-work guidelines, predictably, contain no specifics about compelling employers to provide protective equipment where necessary or enforcing safe distancing rules. And that’s understandable because across those parts of industry that have been working these past six weeks, safety management has ranged from lax to negligible.