- December 17, 2021
- Posted by: Stratford Team
- Category: Business
Rishi Sunak has been forced to cut short a trip to California and fly back to London to draw up an emergency rescue package for hospitality firms hit by mass Christmas cancellations amid the Omicron wave.
The chancellor held crisis talks with struggling firms by video link from the US on Thursday before his flight, after Labour said his absence from the UK was “an insult to British businesses and workers”.
He returns to the Treasury on Friday – a day earlier than he had intended to fly home – under intense pressure to announce emergency financial help.
The scramble came as Covid cases jumped to a historic high in the UK and after England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, said that people should limit their social contact in order to have a better chance of spending Christmas Day with relatives.
Business leaders warned that firms would not survive the winter without urgent intervention from the government, blaming a change in messaging as…
