Comments by UK prime minister, Boris Johnson
- We must set out the way ahead
- We were able to avert a far worse disaster
- Still awaiting for the full economic reverberations to appear
- Government is committed to 'unite' and 'level up' the UK
- Says that will not use austerity to respond to the crisis
A couple of token remarks by Johnson but the speech set out here is more symbolic if anything else. It just reaffirms that he has no plans to go back into lockdown and they will be dealing with any future outbreaks in a more localised manner.
Johnson also adds that finance minister Sunak will set out plans for "Phase One" of the economy next week and that this is a chance to be "radical and bold".
Honestly, I still reserve my doubts over the UK in all of this. They are on a fast track to try and 'get over' the coronavirus crisis but so far there doesn't seem to be convincing evidence that officials are handling the health crisis in an excellent and stellar manner.
The minute we start to see more isolated outbreaks occur, I can't imagine the amount of backlash and scrutiny that Johnson and the government will suffer.
Sure, they can play it down like the way Trump has in the US but I can't see UK assets - including the pound - being as resilient under similar circumstances.
