<center><img src='https://cdni.rt.com/files/2020.05/article/5ebc58e085f54025f27892d3.jpg' alt='STEEM POSTS' /></center>  

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 <p>A confidential Treasury assessment of the Covid-19 crisis estimates it will cost the Exchequer over £300 billion this year, meaning a new wave of austerity is on its way, with the burden falling on the backs of ordinary people.</p><p>Large sections of the left, including the Labour Party and leading trade union figures, were cock-a-hoop when they heard the news that UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak was to extend the furlough scheme for around 7.5 million employees until October – at a cost of up to £100 billion. One suspects they'll be less pleased though when the time comes to pay for the government's ‘generosity'.&nbsp;</p><p>The cost of the lockdown has been calculated at £2.4 billion a day. And according to a leaked assessment <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/05/12/exclusive-treasury-blueprint-raise-taxes-freeze-wages-pay-300bn/">published</a> in the Daily Telegraph the ‘base case scenario' forecasts that Britain will have a £337 billion deficit this year – that's £300 billion more than the amount forecast in March's budget.</p> 

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