Boris Johnson has called for a new, investment-led approach to the economy as he said coronavirus had been “an absolute nightmare” for the UK.
The prime minister used a rare live interview to promise the aftermath of the pandemic would not result in a return to austerity.
In his own round of media appearances, the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, said it was “staggering” the government was waiting until autumn to set a budget, and accused ministers of a lack of planning over reopening schools.
Johnson, speaking to Times Radio on its first day of broadcasting, also pushed back against the idea of an imminent inquiry into the scale of Covid-19 deaths in the UK, saying this was too soon.
“I happen to think that the moment is not right now, in the middle of really getting things going, still dealing with the pandemic, when everybody is flat out,” he said.
“I don’t think the moment is right now for consecrating a huge amount of official time to all that, but we are learning lessons the whole time and we obviously will draw the right conclusions for the future.”
Johnson said it was time for a “Rooseveltian approach to the UK”, referencing the former US president’s programme of economy-boosting public works in the 1930s under his New Deal policy, including new spending on schools.
“This has been a disaster, let’s not mince our words, this has been an absolute nightmare for the country,” he said about coronavirus. “The country has gone through a profound shock. But in those moments you have the opportunity to change and to do things better.
“We really want to build back better, to do things differently, to invest in infrastructure, transport, broadband – you name it.”
While refusing to specifically rule out any spending cuts, Johnson said his aim would be to invest to help the economy recover. “You have to be careful and the chancellor will be setting out our plans in the spending review in the autumn.
“But in the end what you can’t do at this moment is go back to what people called austerity, it wasn’t actually austerity but people called it austerity, and I think that would be a mistake.”
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Starmer called for a July budget to tackle looming mass unemployment.
He said: “It’s staggering that in light of the economic crisis that is about to descend upon us that we are not having a July budget that puts jobs at the centre of economic recovery.”
Starmer also accused the government of being “asleep at the wheel” over reopening schools.
Speaking to Sky News, he said: “There has been a total lack of planning. From the day the schools were shut down, it was obvious what needed to happen to get them back open again.
“You needed a risk assessment, and you needed to look at the space.
“I’ve talked to loads of headteachers, and the points they have made to me were obvious and practical and could have been overcome.”
He added: “If you could put up Nightingale hospitals – a good thing to do – you can certainly put up temporary classrooms, you can certainly take over libraries, community centres.”