Edwina Currie on jobs in the arts: "You cannot save all the puppies"

30 September 2020, 21:16 | Updated: 30 September 2020, 21:17

Edwina Currie on jobs: "You can't save all the puppies"

Former Tory MP Edwina Currie has told LBC that whole swathes of jobs in some industries will be lost as a result of the coronavirus pandemic as "you cannot save all the puppies".

The coronavirus pandemic has hit the economy hard, with the most recent unemployment rate - for May to July - at 4.1%, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The UK has also shed nearly 750,000 jobs during coronavirus crisis, with further job losses expected as a result of the second wave.

Speaking on Iain Dale's Cross Question, Ms Currie said: "If you open up something like an exhibition, will people actually come?

"You're not going to get international travellers, you're not going to get most of the old people who might come, so you're going to spend a fortune and it's all going to go down the drain.

"There's a saying if you have a good heart, and that's that you cannot save all the puppies."

Cross Question with Iain Dale: watch again in full

Edwina continued: "There are going to be some activities that are not going to recover for quite a long time.

"Some things, such as the theatre and weddings will come back but some things are going to take longer, and much of the exhibition industry and festivals will not get going quickly.

"In which case, it makes no fiscal or political sense to start throwing money at them.

"And on the other hand, there are quite a lot of vacancies in other industries.

When questioned by Iain that this means many companies will just go out of business, Edwina told him: "Well yes, they will go out of business."

Read more: Shelagh Fogarty speechless at caller's shocking hospital experience

Read more: 'What do you expect him to do?': Callers clash over Boris Johnson's performance as PM