PMQs full of even Tory MPs despairing at simple things Boris could do right now to help people.
Presumably
@brb and
@Chief were screaming "stop criticising things are already as good as anyone could ever make them" at their TVs.
Greg Clark: "Instead of firms paying PAYE to the government, that flow should now be reversed with the nation paying the wages of people for the next weeks if, and only if, they continue to employ their staff.
Separate arrangements would need to be made for the self-employed, but at a stroke this would save people’s jobs, save businesses and put an immediate end to the risk of contagion and help save the economy."
Iain Duncan Smith: "There is something else the government can do, literally today. Universal credit has three basic levers which could all be pulled now enormously to help people who are in work. One, the taper could be lowered dramatically at this stage, which would push the floor right up underneath people in work at the moment, allowing them to fall back on that if government’s cannot deal with them.
Second, you could change the benefit rates allowing the greater expanse of money to flow to them. This could be done today.
The third areas is to look at the waiting time [for benefits] and reduce that almost immediately.
Those three things were always built into the flexibility. They can be done today, they can be delivered within days by the department that already has the ability to do that whilst he gets on with this other facility."