Brits left stranded by one of the biggest job crises in a generation were said to be considering a BA (Hons) in Billionnaireism and retraining as a “rich man with good connections from boarding school” last night following comments from Rishi Sunak.
The chancellor sparked outrage after he suggested people “in all walks of life” should look to find new opportunities as the economic downturn ensues, saying: “I can’t pretend that everyone can do exactly the same job that they were doing at the beginning of this crisis”.
His intervention sparked a backlash from leading figures in the arts, who have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, with Liam Gallagher, former Bake Off host Sue Perkins, author Ian Rankin and former Charlatans singer Tim Burgess expressing their angst.
Put to the chancellor that he was telling people to “go and get a different job”, Sunak replied: “That fresh and new opportunity for people – that’s exactly what we should be doing.”
But with job vacancies at an all-time low, people have been left scratching their heads as to how they might achieve that.
In July a South London pub received 484 applications for 2 bar jobs, signalling that the market looked to be in dire straits.
The reaction to Sunak’s suggestion that simply seeking “fresh opportunities” has been far from complementary. We have picked out some of best comments:
