British Prime Minister Boris Johnson anticipated “difficult times” on Monday when he launched a new “big plan” to revitalize the UK economy emerging from the coronavirus pandemic, but warned that returning to austerity would be “a mistake” . ”
Johnson, who spent days in intensive care after testing positive for COVID-19 in April, promised a “Rooseveltian approach” similar to the New Deal policies of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt that helped the United States recover from the Great Depression. .
Previous conservative governments adopted austerity policies that sought to reduce public spending in an attempt to reduce a national debt that was exacerbated by the 2008 global financial crisis.
BRITISH PM BORIS JOHNSON PUSHES WHILE PREPARING UK RECOVERY PLAN, CLAIMS ‘ADAPTS TO A BUTCHER DOG’
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits the Ealing Fields High School construction site in West London on Monday 29 June 2020. (Toby Melville / Pool via AP)
But Johnson won a large majority in Parliament in December promising to rebalance the British London-dominated economy and revive the long-neglected old industrial regions of central and northern England.
On Monday, the prime minister said a billion pounds ($ 1.25 billion) will be invested to build new schools, and a number of other infrastructure projects will be unveiled later this week.
“This has been a disaster,” Johnson told Times Radio. “Let’s not chop our words. I mean, this has been an absolute nightmare for the country, and the country has been in deep shock. “
“But in those moments, you have the opportunity to change and do things better,” he said. “This is a time to give our country the skills, the infrastructure, the long-term investment that we need.”
“I think this is the time for a Rooseveltian approach to the UK,” he continued. “In the end, what you can’t do right now is go back to what people called austerity, it wasn’t really austerity, but people called it austerity, and I think that would be a mistake.”
Johnson visited the Ealing Fields High School construction site in west London on Monday to signal his commitment to big promises of money for schools, housing and infrastructure as the country emerges from a three-month blockade.
He said his goal is “to get companies confident, to start investing, to start attracting people and to start creating new jobs and generating new growth,” Sky News reported.
Critics want to know where the money will come from. The economic freeze caused by the pandemic has left Britain facing a deep recession: the Bank of England estimates that the UK economy could end the first half of 2020 around 20 percent less than at the beginning of the year.
The UK coronavirus outbreak left at least 43,550 dead, the third highest number of deaths in the world after the United States and Brazil. Deaths and new infections are now declining, but slowly, and Britain lags behind its European neighbors in reopening society and the economy.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson talks to Vedant Jitesh student of the year 10 during a visit to the construction site of Ealing Fields High School in West London on Monday June 29, 2020. (Toby Melville / Pool via AP )
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The UK faces another economic shock later this year as a post-Brexit transition period ends, driving the country out of the vast single market of the 27-nation bloc.
Critics have accused the Johnson administration of being too slow to impose a national blockade, failing to provide enough protective equipment to medical workers, and failing to launch a test-and-trace system to control new outbreaks.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
