THE REFUSAL of Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak to act now to extend protection to British workers beyond October is an act of industrial sabotage and a gross betrayal of those who for generations have built our nations.

While many have worked bravely throughout this pandemic, some paying with their lives as they struggled to protect ours, millions of others have been furloughed at home or agreed to work reduced hours in the face of collapsed demand.

While a safe return to work may now be on the cards for some, with union reps working around the clock to ensure safe systems of work are both in place and enforced, for others a return to full-time work will require a return of consumer confidence and a wider demand for services and products not predicted in the immediate future.

Recognising this reality and the need to protect jobs and businesses, families and communities is central to the industrial plans and strategies of centre-right governments across the world — with Spain becoming the latest to extend its pay protection scheme for as long as it takes, adapting pay protection measures to reflect the genuine needs of specific sectors, while offering targeted sector level assistance as required.

In the face of bold long-term initiatives across Europe, and even the United States, the British government continues to look on aimlessly as we march on towards the cliff edge from which millions will be thrown under the bus.

During last week’s Prime Ministers Questions, Johnson’s announcement that “an ounce of confidence is worth a ton of government money” was utterly breathtaking — throwing fuel on the fire for millions of people in the fight of their lives for jobs in viable businesses that simply need help.

He went on to describe workers on furlough as “languishing out of work” under the protection of a job retention scheme due to end on November 1.

This insulting narrative, picked up and pushed in our faces by right-wing press barons already salivating over his insistence that whatever the industrial consequences, a no-deal relationship with the European Union was better than sacrificing our sovereignty, signalled his clear intent to ignore the pleas of those facing unemployment, many for the first time in their lives.

The soundbites and rhetoric associated with his “we’re on your side” and “whatever it takes” mantras are just that: soundbites and rhetoric.

That will be a hard message to swallow for those who lent him their vote in December, now desperate for practical assistance and support to maintain livelihoods and opportunities for their kids.

The reality is he simply doesn’t care. He didn’t care about working-class communities then and he doesn’t now.

And so, Unite this morning takes its fight for jobs to Parliament. I’ll be joined on College Green by MPs from across the house, by shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds and by Unite members from across our manufacturing sectors in a Covid-19 compliant lobby to issue an urgent #SOS4JOBS across Britain.

We’ll be calling on politicians, mayors, local leaders and business CEOs to join us and sign our pledge to protect their constituents and workers from an unemployment tsunami.

From the people who’ve given their entire lives to ensure that Britain retains its position as a great manufacturing nation we bring a clear and urgent message to the Prime Minister: “Do not abandon us at our time of need.”

We’re not asking for a bailout, we’re seeking an investment, a stake in our working lives, in return for which our nation should take a stake in our workplaces.

We seek no more than the same level of support being offered to our brothers and sisters in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland and the US — support to stabilise our lives and allow us to work night and day to get viable businesses through this crisis and new orders on our books.

Don’t let the good work of recent months go to waste, keep people in work, not idle and impoverished when there is an economy to recover and country to rebuild.

British manufacturing is vital to our economic recovery. It funds our public services and will power the jobs and green technologies of tomorrow.

It keeps communities strong in those parts of the country Johnson has pledged to “level up” which, without action now, will be condemned to a “levelling down” as the gates close on the businesses that sit at their heart.

Unite represents the men and women who built Britain and the workers who will rebuild and reshape it to meet the challenges of the future.

We will not sit back as thousands of well-paid, highly skilled jobs are tossed away as a result of an economic ideology and drive to reshape the economy for the benefit of the already rich and powerful.

Or perhaps we’re overreacting — and the government’s vision for a renewed consumer-led economy driven by jobs at Amazon and meal deals on the high street is the way to go to create a modern economy reliant on … oh, yes, those very jobs at Rolls-Royce, Airbus, Cummins, Bilfinger, Safran, ADL and JLR. Not to mention millions in hospitality, aviation and retail who are currently being tossed away in a frenzy fuelled by government inaction.

Somehow, I think we’re right, Rishi — and what we need you and your government to now do is act.

Steve Turner is an assistant general secretary of Unite.