“It’s important we are honest with people about what may be happening in our economy.”

Today’s government press conference saw Chancellor Rishi Sunak discuss the economic outlook from the UK Office for Budget Responsibility.

He was quick to say that this is ‘not a forecast or a prediction’ but ‘what one scenario might look like’. He said: “It’s important we are honest with people about what may be happening in our economy.”

The OBR figures suggest the scale of what we are facing will have serious implications - the impact will be ‘significant’ but the OBR expect them to be temporary. The chancellor explained that not every business and household can be protected, he said: “These are tough times and there will be more to come.”

When can businesses expect to recieve money from the governement grants, coronavirus interruption loans and job retention scheme:

He added: “We came into this crisis with a fundamentally sound economy powered by the hard work and ingenuity of the British people and British businesses.

“We’re not just going to stand by and let this happen. Our planned, economic response is protecting millions of jobs, businesses, self employed people, charities and households. Our response aims to directly support people and businesses while the restrictions are in place and to make sure as the restrictions are changed, we can as quickly as possible get people back to work, get businesses moving again and recover our economy.

“The OBR today have been clear, that the policies we have set out will do that and if we had not taken the actions we have, the situation would be much worse.

“In other words, our plan is the right plan.

“The single most important thing we can do for the health of our economy is to protect the health of our people. It’s not a case of choosing between the economy and public health – common sense tells us that doing so would be self-defeating.”