Michael Spencer: Government must find way to ease ‘agonising’ UK lockdown
Billionaire financier Michael Spencer has urged the government to “be brave” in its approach to easing the UK lockdown, warning the “agonising” effects of the economic shutdown risk causing lasting damage to British businesses.
Spencer said that the longer the economy is “left in its paralysed state the greater the damage that accumulates”.
He added: “Companies will go bust, jobs will be lost, public debt will expand exponentially and each of those negative events will not be easily recovered.”
Appearing on The City View podcast, Spencer acknowledged that the debate about easing lockdown measures “is very difficult and nuanced”. But he warned that the policy is “agonising from an economic and human point of view.”
The City grandee and long-standing donor to the Conservative party said “the sooner we can rebuild our economy, the better”. He also said he was “encouraged” by reports of the government planning to allow certain businesses to reopen amid the UK lockdown.
However, he said that “the devil is in the detail” for the UK, adding: “I personally believe quite strongly that they [ministers] should be quite bold in rowing back from the lockdown.”
Spencer also urged the government to trust that people will act sensibly and responsibly as he warned against a barrage of new laws to enforce post-lockdown measures on the UK.
“I hope that when the government does announce the lockdown rules it will assume and expect people to behave responsibly, rather than impose a whole load of legislative definitions as to what we can or can’t do, and then send the police round to try and enforce this… which would be a deeply unfortunate and unnecessary move.”
In a wide-ranging interview with City PM, Spencer:
- Suggested that the Prime Minister’s own experience of Coronavirus “may incline him to a more cautious approach” to easing the UK lockdown
- Warned that the hospitality sector in particular faces” a profoundly challenging outlook” and that it’s “almost impossible to conceive how restaurants can take customers on any commercial basis – if social distancing is maintained”
- Said that the government’s economic support measures will see national debt reaching “eye-watering numbers”
- Talked of the need for a robust free-market response to the economic challenges presented by the global pandemic
- Warned that April’s stock market recovery was “over exuberant”
- Predicts “a U-shaped recovery” as “we’re in it for the long haul”