Labour warns on return to austerity after virus crisis
The shadow chancellor's urging the Government not to repeat the mistakes made after the financial crash ten years ago.
Anneliese Dodds said Labour and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have been calling for the most vulnerable people and businesses to be protected.
She told BBC One's The Andrew Marr Show: "I would say the critical thing there is that we learn from the lessons particularly of the very slow recovery that we had in the UK after the global financial crisis, make sure that we don't repeat the same mistakes again and that we have a much more sustainable economic recovery this time."
Ms Dodds warned of a "ripple effect right across our economy if large numbers of people and businesses become severely indebted and, of course, if many businesses go bust", adding: "Of course we are seeing now record numbers of people struggling, trying to access Universal Credit.
"We had the longest squeeze on living standards in our country since Napoleonic times from 2010 until the current day. That can't happen again.
"So that means not having a strategy where services are cut back so radically that you pull demand out of the economy, that's what happened in the UK in the 2010s, not having an approach which cuts taxes for the very best off people but actually ensures that the burden is falling on the shoulders of everybody else."
Ms Dodds also raised concerns over the Government's small business loans programme, arguing: "It's a real short-term crunch that we have right now that Government needs to get a grip on.
"We've actually seen only about 2% of businesses benefiting from that programme that could do.
Published: by Radio NewsHub