Britain’s Giant Furlough Program Is Only Just the Start

When Boris Johnson said “we must act like any wartime government,” he also meant Britain must spend like one — and the prime minister has certainly lived up to the promise. His Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak told Parliament on Tuesday that Britain had one of the most comprehensive financial relief plans for the Covid-19 outbreak anywhere in the world. That was no exaggeration.

The mix of cash grants, tax cuts, loans and other support has cushioned the blow of the lockdown for workers, kept British businesses from folding and built a level of public support that wasn’t warranted by the U.K.’s disastrous early handling of the public health crisis. But the largess has made some of Johnson’s fellow Conservatives uneasy. They argue that so much interventionism is distorting the market, creating a dependency on benefits, propping up failing firms and building a mountain of debt that will burden future generations.