Greens condemn government for failing to protect livelihoods as well as lives
1 December 2020
- Molly Scott Cato: “It is a mark of the true failure of this government that they have mismanaged the economic consequences of the pandemic as disastrously as they mismanaged the pandemic itself”
The Green Party has condemned the government’s handling of the pandemic after shocking new OECD data showed that while many European economies have suffered unprecedented declines as a result of Covid-19, the UK is predicted to be amongst the slowest to recover. [1]
Green Party finance spokesperson Molly Scott Cato said:
“It is a mark of the true failure of this government that it has mismanaged the economic consequences of the pandemic as disastrously as it mismanaged the pandemic itself.
“This failure can be laid at the door of this Brexit government being driven by ideology rather than evidence. Their conviction that markets solve problems and their centralisation of power has led to a massive waste of public money on a failed contact-tracing system without which many sectors of the economy were forced to remain closed.
“The misguided assumption behind government policy that there was a trade-off between public health and the health of the economy led to a late lockdown causing thousands of unnecessary deaths but also the loss of many viable businesses.
“The OECD is absolutely right to warn against any return to austerity. To avert the threat of mass unemployment we need the government to invest in a green transition, creating thousands of well paid jobs in all our communities and making the pandemic a turning point for climate action.”
ENDS
Notes
1