The government is facing cross-party calls from MPs, charities and thinktanks to start paying swathes of the population a basic income to cushion the economic shock of the coronavirus outbreak.
The former Conservative business secretary Greg Clark urged the government to act immediately to prevent mass job losses by allowing the taxpayer to subsidise companies’ wage bills. Forty-six opposition MPs and peers also wrote to Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak demanding a basic income payment for all citizens to see them through this crisis. » | Robert Booth and Heather Stewart | Thursday, March 19, 2020
