Britain should prepare for tough times ahead, the chancellor warned yesterday as the financial watchdog predicted that the lockdown could leave more than two million people unemployed and shrink the economy by 35 per cent.
In a bleak forecast, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said that net public sector borrowing would reach £273 billion, the largest single-year deficit since the Second World War.
However, economists suggested that the damage could be even worse. They said the OBR’s prediction that the economy would bounce back quickly as soon as restrictions were lifted, resulting in an annual reduction in GDP of up to 13 per cent, was too optimistic.
It came as hundreds of thousands of people who claimed benefits for the first time after losing
