Rishi Sunak was told to fly back to the UK today to “get a grip” of the covid chaos hitting businesses.
The chancellor has been accused of going “missing in action” after the Mirror revealed he was in California rather than at his Treasury desk.
It comes after professor Chris Whitty’s plea for Brits to consider cutting back socialising over Christmas prompted fierce calls for support from the hospitality industry.
Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting told Times Radio: “I think today, the chancellor and the business secretary should be getting business leaders and trade union leaders around the table to negotiate a package, as they have done successfully before, to help particularly the hospitality sector, but there’ll be others as well who are taking a hit.
“Instead, neither the chancellor nor the business secretary are anywhere to be seen.
“In fact, we understand the chancellor is currently out of the country in California.
“So perhaps he might want to get himself on a flight back and get a grip on the situation because businesses need certainty and confidence now.”
Businesses warn they are facing closures as people cancel events in a bid to ensure they can spend Christmas with their families.
Tory MP Anne Marie Morris tweeted: “If we’re effectively telling people not to visit hospitality venues this Christmas then this needs to be accompanied by immediate sector specific financial support from [the treasury].”
Meanwhile, UKHospitality boss Kate Nicholls pleaded for business rates relief and VAT discounts to be extended, warning that the sector has been knocked harder than expected by the new restrictions.
She said hospitality sales have already plunged by more than a third over the last 10 days with £2 billion of trade already lost in December.
“It is quite clear that the impact of the current guidance and restrictions has been more hard hitting on an already beleaguered hospitality sector than expected,” she said.
Meanwhile, the CBI called on the government to provide support “in lockstep with future restrictions”.
Last night Whitty told the public “don’t mix with people you don’t have to” at events that are not among the most important to them.
He told a Downing Street press conference: “I really think people should be prioritising those things – and only those things – that really matter to them.
“Because otherwise the risk of someone getting infected at something that doesn’t really matter to them and then not being able to do the things that matter to them obviously goes up.”
The government has been accused of making mixed messages after Boris Johnson stopped short of telling people to cancel parties while also urging them to “think carefully” about seeing people before Christmas.
Sunak’s spokesperson said: “It is a work trip where he is conducting Government business and has a packed schedule of meetings and round tables.”