Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced the full furlough scheme will be extended until the end of March.

It comes after thousands of people are thought to have already lost their jobs as businesses prepared for the job-saving scheme to end on October 31. 

However the UK Government announced a month-long extension at the last minute on Saturday, when it was decided that England would go into a full lockdown.

Now Mr Sunak has announced that furlough, paid at 80% of salaries, will remain in place for locked down areas and industries until March.

The Treasury also confirmed that anyone made redundant by firms expecting the scheme to end on October 31 can be rehired and put on furlough if they lost their job between September 23 and October 31.

Grants of up to £7,500 will be available for the self-employed, based on 80% of their average trading profits.

Speaking to MPs, he said: "We can announce today that the furlough scheme will not be extended for one month.

"It will be extended until the end of March.

"The government will continue to help pay people's wages, up to 80% of the normal amount.

"All employers will have to pay for hours not worked is the cost of employer national insurance and pension contribution." 

The Chancellor said he had to make “rapid adjustments” to the Government’s economic response to Covid-19, due to how the virus has spread.

He told the Commons: “I know that people watching at home will have been frustrated by the changes the Government has brought in during the past few weeks.

“I have had to make rapid adjustments to our economic plans as the spread of the virus has accelerated.”

The job retention scheme where employers were to receive £1000 for every employee returned from furlough, is now to be delayed until the end of the extended furlough scheme.

On top of the extension to furlough, the Scottish Government is to receive extra funding through Barnett consequentials. 

Devolved governments will receive an extra £2bn in total, with Holyrood ministers now be getting a total of £8.2bn extra on top of that contained in the Spring budget statement, according to the Treasury. 

Workers who lost their jobs between September 23 and October 31 will be able to be rehired by their former firms and then put on furlough, the Treasury has confirmed.

Anneliese Dodds, Labour's Shadow chancellor, criticised the last-minute change and asked Mr Sunak to apologise to those who had already lost their jobs.

She said: "Businesses and workers have been pleading for certainty from this Government, but the Chancellor keeps ignoring them until the last possible moment after jobs have been lost and businesses have gone bust.”

"Now when the lockdown was announced, the Prime Minister said furlough would be extended for a month – five hours before that scheme was due to end.

"Two days later, realising the self-employed had been forgotten, there was a last-minute change to the self-employed scheme. And now, further changes.

“The Chancellor’s fourth version of his winter economy plan in just six weeks. The Chancellor can change his mind at the last minute, but businesses can’t.

“We need a Chancellor who is in front of the problems we face, not one who is always a step behind.”

She added: "How many jobs could have been saved if this Government had recognised reality and let businesses plan for the future?

“Will the Chancellor apologise to those who have already been made redundant because of this last minute approach?"