Ablrate chief criticises government’s handling of the lockdown
Ablrate chief executive David Bradley-Ward has criticised the government’s handling of the lockdown and said it would be impossible to enforce a second one.
The government implemented a nationwide lockdown in mid-March and has recently begun easing the restrictions. Non-essential shops were allowed to reopen from 15 June and other sectors, such as parts of the hospitality sector, will be able to reopen from 4 July.
Bradley-Ward (pictured) criticised the reopening of pubs this Saturday, arguing that they should have reopened on a Monday where it would not be as crowded and the businesses would have had the chance to ease into it.
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“The economy will kill more people than the virus ever did,” Bradley-Ward said.
“You can’t just shut down the economy. They started talking about herd mentality. We all have to crack on and adapt and I’d be very surprised if the government were able to implement a nationwide lockdown again.
“How do they tell businesses that have followed everything they were told to do, were not paid to shut down previously and lost money while their rent was just deferred, to shut down once again?
“Businesses like pubs were not compensated. It’s outrageous the government should shut them down, everyone should have their own choice. I don’t see sense of it. We’ll see what happens and whether we bounce back and with confidence.”
This latest criticism of the lockdown follows Money&Co chief executive Nicola Horlick announcing last week that the lockdown should have been lifted earlier.
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Bradley-Ward has been an outspoken critic of Chancellor Rishi Sunak and the slow pace at which banks have delivered the government-backed emergency loan schemes, such as the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme and bounce back loan scheme.
He has previously said that he believes P2P lending platforms would have performed better than the banks at financing the loans.
“Perhaps it would’ve worked if it were not banks that were mainly delivering the schemes,” he said.
“They have been found lacking. The banks should be broken up in my opinion.”