Coronavirus: Rishi Sunak to set ‘exceptionally high’ bar for company bailouts in warning to corporate giants

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The chancellor has said he will set an “exceptionally high” bar for businesses looking for bailouts funded by the British taxpayer and that his priority is protecting jobs as the coronavirus lockdown eases.

Speaking to Bloomberg Television on Friday, Rishi Sunak was asked what the government would do about “big-name companies” seeking a bailout from the government as the impact of the pandemic on businesses becomes more stark.

“This is not my money. it’s not government’s money. This is taxpayers’ money. I shouldn’t be sitting here trying to pick winners,” said Mr Sunak.

“The bar for companies accessing taxpayer support in a bespoke and significant way is extraordinarily high, and should be extremely rare.

“It’s not something that is an attractive long-term feature of the economy, and if we’re in a situation like that, then one would obviously expect investors and creditors to significantly share in the burden, that all other avenues have been explored and an investment like that would come with significant strings attached.

“All of this is to protect the taxpayer,” he added.

The Government has come under pressure to bail out companies such as airline Virgin Atlantic, Tata Steel and Jaguar Land Rover.

According to Bloomberg, Mr Sunak also hinted strongly that the Value Added Tax (VAT) would not be cut imminently as household finances in the UK are “reasonably robust”.

He also said the furlough program, which has been helping businesses pay employees’ wages up to 2,500 since March, must come to an end in the fall as it cannot be sustained indefinitely.

However, the chancellor insisted it was his priority to protect jobs, as business groups make grave predictions that thousands of jobs will be lost in the aftermath of the lockdown.

“There are very tragic projections for what might happen to employment, there’s enormous dislocation in the labour market,” said Mr Sunak.

“My priority is absolutely to try and protect and preserve as many of those jobs as possible.”

His comments come as one of the UK’s largest shopping mall owners, Intu, announced it was going into administration following failed debt talks with creditors, putting thousands of jobs in 17 shopping malls across the country at risk.