Chancellor Rishi Sunak has blasted for a “derilicton of duty” by flying off to California instead of staying in Whitehall to provide support for covid-striken businesses in the UK.
The Chancellor is on a four-day official trip to the USA leaving his Treasury team back home scrabbling to work out a package of support.
In the Commons Labour’s Pat McFadden mocked the Chancellor’s absence while the SNP’s Alison Thewliss angrily denounced his trip.
McFadden, Labour’s Shadow Treasury Minister, asked: “Why did he decide to proceed with a trip to California on Tuesday when it was already clear that UK businesses were struggling to cope with what the Prime Minister himself has called a ‘tidal wave of Omicron’?
“Even if he’s abroad, California is not exactly a communications desert. They have television there, I’ve even heard they have the internet, but it’s still radio silence from the Chancellor – tumbleweed rolling through the Treasury.”
McFadden said the Chancellor needs to talk to UK businesses who are “losing bookings by the hour and watching their December profits vanish into thin air”.
The SNP's Alison Thewliss MP said: “Rather than taking steps to strengthen support and fill the gaps in measures to help businesses and workers at this crucial time, the Chancellor is instead literally out of office thousands of miles away.
“Businesses are calling out for measures to help them navigate through this challenging period - firms are facing countless cancellations, many are being pushed into hardship and jobs are on the line.
“It is nothing short of a dereliction of duty.”
Treasury minister John Glen defended the Chancellor’s overseas trip.
He told MPs: “He was on a long-planned business trip to the US conducting Government business and he will continue to engage today with other ministers, with the representatives of the hospitality sector and others to hear their concerns about what further support should be required.”
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