The hon. Member’s intervention leads me nicely on to my next point. My constituent tells me that some of her colleagues have actually taken their own lives and some have suffered heart attacks. The Government are not powerless. They can put a stop to these awful fire and rehire practices before they spread through other industries.
Our easyJet base in Newcastle has also closed. Our neighbours in Europe, recognising the value of regional connectivity, jobs, skills and a supply chain that benefits the wider local economy, have given substantial bailouts—not loans—to their operators. They have also substantially extended furlough, which the Government here rejected outright yesterday. I spoke to an easyJet pilot who asked me to put to the Minister why the Government are not considering travel corridors on a region-by-region basis in the same way they have applied measures in the UK. It does not make sense to shut down access to an entire country when just one part of it has an outbreak of coronavirus.
I am sure that the Minister will tell us that the Government have set up the aviation engagement unit, but can he tell us exactly what it has achieved? From what I can see, it has achieved very little so far. My constituents’ futures and jobs are on the line. It is in the Government’s gift to do something. Why don’t they?
2.17 pm