Anneliese Dodds MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, responding to ONS statistics on public sector finances, said:

“The current crisis has required levels of public expenditure that are unprecedented in peacetime, to keep people in work and prevent businesses from going bust.

“The Government needs to act strategically, to protect those sectors hardest hit by the crisis and help back into work those who are already unemployed or look set to be made redundant.

“The long-term and human costs of failing to head off mass unemployment would be devastating, and we will continue to press the Government to act to prevent this”.