Rishi Sunak’s plan to bring Britain back from the brink depends as much on public health as economics

Editorial: The British economy has not known such a grim outlook since the 1970s. The chancellor thinks he can spend his way out of the Covid-19 crisis – but will it work?

Sunak delivers his economic update to the Commons

Rishi Sunak is such a charming young man – he’s been called the ideal son-in-law – that he wants to take the whole nation out to dinner. OK, drinks are not included, and there’s a cap of £10, but he’s knocking most of the VAT off, and he is a tee-total chancellor of the exchequer after all.

Sure-footed, polished and creative as Mr Sunak is, though, he’d maybe not spoil a great night out with talk about the country’s economic prospects. These are anything but jolly. The imminent post-Covid, post-Brexit return to mass unemployment, especially among the young, is plainly something that quietly haunts the chancellor. He said in his innocuously named Summer Economic Update (in reality a third emergency mini-budget) that the response to the Covid-19 crisis would “define us”. The winding-down of the jobs retention furlough scheme will be a “difficult moment”. He tried to reassure the public that he does not accept that unemployment is inevitable, another signal that this is no neo-Thatcherite gang of ideologues. The ghost of Sir Keith Joseph is undisturbed.

Recalling, one assumes, the social and economic scars of those who grew up in the 1930s and 1980s, Mr Sunak declares that “we cannot lose this generation”. Ominously and encouragingly in equal measure, Mr Sunak cautioned MPs that this latest £30bn instalment of public spending, job subsidies and tax cuts will not be the last time he will have to boost the economy in the coming months. The underlying commitment to do “whatever it takes” seems to be in place, though the catchphrase was not used. No doubt the same applies to the Bank of England’s financial initiatives.