UK PM Johnson says furlough scheme keeps people in "suspended animation"

Prime Minister Boris Johnson described a scheme created to retain jobs as keeping people in "suspended animation", saying on Wednesday that the government instead wanted to get Britain back to work.

Questioned in parliament by opposition parties over whether he would extend the so-called furlough scheme beyond an end of October deadline to protect people's jobs, Johnson said the programme "keeps them in suspended animation and prevents them from going to work. What we want to do is to get people back to work."