Sunak reassured the Commons this morning that he hasn’t forgotten about the self-employed, who at the moment only have statutory sick pay to fall back on during the coronavirus disruption. Responding to the SNP’s employment spokesman Richard Thomson, Sunak said that whilst there is no easy solution to supporting them – unlike payroll workers – a package is coming:

“Partly the issue is of course there are people whose incomes have been enormously impacted by what is going on currently, but there are also millions of people who are self-employed whose incomes may not have been impacted and indeed might be increasing. 

The ability of the government to distinguish between those people based on tax returns over a year and a half out-of-date poses some very significant challenges in terms of fairness and responsibility”

He won’t be drawn on when we might expect the new measures to be announced…