Rishi Sunak says 140,000 firms applied for furlough scheme for 1 million workers on first day

THERE’S not much to celebrate at present. But one million jobs were saved on Monday.

Rishi Sunak’s furlough scheme to pay 80 per cent of wages for those currently unable to work had applications from 140,000 firms on its first day alone.

That is a lifeline for families all over Britain. But we would say this to the Chancellor: Be straight with the public over what all this will cost.

Too many think the Government can fund this bailout until the virus burns itself out or a vaccine arrives. It cannot.

And every penny will have to be paid back, over decades, by taxpayers.

Mr Sunak has warned of hardship ahead. Too few grasp just how hard it will be.

ANY UK organisation with employees can apply, including businesses, charities, recruitment agencies and public authorities.

It's up to your place of work to apply to the scheme, meaning you won't need to contact the government yourself.

To access the scheme, your employer must comply with the following:

• Designate employees who cannot do their jobs due to the coronavirus measures put in place by the government
• Notify those employees of their new "furloughed" status
• Submit information to HMRC about furloughed employees to set up a system for reimbursement and about existing systems that will facilitate payments

To be furloughed, you must have been on a payroll on March 19.

Although furlough leave can be backdated to March 1, the portal your employer will use to register your furloughed status only launched today.

Consequently, you will not be paid until the end of this month.

Workers can ask previous employers to rehire and furlough them, even if they left for another job, but firms don't have to do this.

BRITAIN’s four million NHS staff are on the frontline in the battle against coronavirus.

But while they are helping save lives, who is there to help them?

The Sun has launched an appeal to raise £1MILLION for NHS workers.

The Who Cares Wins Appeal aims to get vital support to staff in their hour of need.

We have teamed up with NHS Charities Together in their urgent Covid-19 Appeal to ensure the money gets to exactly who needs it.

The Sun is donating £50,000 and we would like YOU to help us raise a million pounds, to help THEM.

No matter how little you can spare, please donate today here

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SCIENTISTS tonight refused to rule out a link between the Liverpool-Atletico Madrid match in early March and the city's high coronavirus rate.

Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser Angela McLean called it “an interesting hypothesis” when she was quizzed on it this evening.

She added: "I think it’ll be very interesting to see in the future, when all the science is done, what relationship there is between the viruses that have circulated."

Spain is one of the worst affected countries in Europe, and some parts of Liverpool have some of the the worst rates of coronavirus outside London and the West Midlands.

Just eleven days after the match on March 12 at Anfield, Boris Johnson locked down Britain and ordered everyone to stay indoors.

Critics have said the match should never have taken place, as it may have helped spread the disease in and around the country.

Yesterday the Madrid Mayor admitted it was a "mistake" for it to go ahead, but ministers tonight insisted they made the right calls at the right time.

Other games around the time had been cancelled, but 3,000 fans still flew over from Spain to see it.

Travel from the UK to Spain was restricted the day after the match.

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