UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has this morning given an interview to the newly-launched Times Radio.
Mr Johnson told the station the government should take an activist and interventionist approach to the economy in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
He said an economic effort like the one enacted by former US president Franklin D Roosevelt in his New Deal out of the great depression was now needed.
“I believe personally that what the government has got to do right now is keep going with an activist, interventionist approach,” said Mr Johnson.
“But that’s the way also to get business to be confident, to start investing, to start taking people back and start creating new jobs and driving new growth.”
The prime minister said there would be “some bumpy times” ahead but the UK would get through the economic fallout, adding that people “instinctively” knew it would be tough.
He also said the government was “concerned” about a rise in coronavirus cases in Leicester. In the two weeks to 23 June, there were 866 positive cases in the city – 29% of the 2,987 there who have tested positive since the pandemic began.
The city’s mayor, Sir Peter Soulsby, earlier said he had been told by the government that current coronavirus restrictions ought to continue in Leicester for another two weeks.