UK job losses underline scale of COVID-19 challenge - Sunak

British finance minister Rishi Sunak said figures showing a record increase in redundancies and a rise in the unemployment rate to 4.8% "underline the scale of the challenge we're facing".

"I want to reassure anyone that is worried about the coming winter months that we will continue to support those affected," he said in a statement after the data was published on Tuesday.

Sunak last week extended until the end of March the government's costly wage subsidy scheme. 

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