Labour: M&S job losses tell “bigger story about the threat to our high streets”

Labour has declared that the job cuts announced by high street giant Marks & Spencer “tell a much bigger story about the threat to our high streets” in the coronavirus pandemic.

Responding to the announcement of a loss of 7,000 jobs over the next three months across M&S stores and management, Labour’s Lucy Powell today reiterated the party’s call for a £1.7bn fightback fund to protect hospitality and high streets.

Commenting on the implications of the job cuts, the shadow business minister said: “These job losses are devastating for the workers involved yet they also tell a much bigger story about the threat to our high streets.”

She added: “The scale of job losses was not inevitable but the incompetence of this government means we’re now seeing wave after wave of redundancies, and store closures.

“Labour has called for a hospitality and high streets fightback fund to support businesses in distress and to save jobs now. Ministers must change course.”

Trade union Usdaw has also called on the Chancellor to protect high street jobs. National officer Dave Gill said: “This job loss announcement is yet another devastating blow for M&S staff and yet another bombshell for our high streets.

“The government has a clear choice: do they want to see the high street go to the wall, or do they want to help save it? What the retail sector needs now is a tripartite approach of the government, unions and employers working together to develop a much needed retail recovery plan.

“We have long called for an industrial strategy for retail to help a sector that was already struggling before the coronavirus emergency. Now the situation is much worse.”

Earlier this month, Anneliese Dodds condemned the government’s handling of the pandemic as data showed that the UK had entered a recession for the first time since the global financial crisis in 2008.

The Shadow Chancellor said that although an economic downturn was inevitable, “Johnson’s jobs crisis wasn’t” and urged that the government “scrap the one-size-fits-all withdrawal of wage support”.

The Office for National Statistics reported that the country’s recession is the deepest decline of any G7 nation in the second quarter, and represents a fall double that of the US economy which shrank by 10.6% over the same period.

Labour has repeatedly demanded that the government change course on its approach to economic support in the crisis, and Dodds has called on the Chancellor to bring forward targeted support for the industries where it’s most needed.