When it comes to furlough it was Rishi Sunak, not his critics, who wasn’t living in the real world

The history of the past four months shows that the Treasury was not only hoping for the best, but planning for the best too, says Ben Chu

The chancellor says he has been forced to make ‘rapid adjustments’ yet the charge against him is that he was not rapid enough in changing course  (PA)

Rishi Sunak calls it a “rapid adjustment”. Others have labelled it a “five-stage U-turn”.

But what’s a fair assessment of the twisting, tortuous, history of the chancellor’s furlough scheme since it was announced in March?

First let’s give credit where it’s due. The furlough started off in a good place and it’s ended up in a reasonably decent place.