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		</div><p>Billionaire Sir Richard Branson has been urged by Labour politicians in the UK to cover the wages of Virgin Atlantic staff forced to take unpaid leave due to the coronavirus.</p>
<p>The airline, founded by Sir Richard, announced today that it had told staff to take eight weeks of unpaid leave due to a sharp drop in demand caused by the outbreak of the virus.</p>
<p>The UK&#8217;s Shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald said: <em>“It is a disgrace for a company owned by a billionaire to ask its employees to live without wages for two months in the middle of a crisis.</em></p>
<p><em>“Richard Branson can put his hand in his own pocket if needs be.”</em></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Everyone is under pressure but throwing hardworking staff out in the cold because shareholders want to keep costs down, is scandalous. <a href="https://twitter.com/richardbranson?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@richardbranson</a>, Virgin staff have supported you through the years, it&#39;s time for you help them through this crisis.</p>
<p>&mdash; Dr Rosena Allin-Khan (@DrRosena) <a href="https://twitter.com/DrRosena/status/1239591336514334722?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 16, 2020</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner urged him to sell his Caribbean island Necker to cover the cost of staff wages.</p>
<p>She tweeted: <em>“Richard flog yr private island and pay yr staff, we are in unprecedented times here.</em></p>
<p><em>“Now is the time yr staff need support after making mountains of cash for the company.”</em></p>
<p>Labour MP and deputy leadership hopeful Rosena Allin-Khan wrote: <em>“Everyone is under pressure but throwing hardworking staff out in the cold because shareholders want to keep costs down, is scandalous.</em></p>
<p><em>“@richardbranson, Virgin staff have supported you through the years, it’s time for you help them through this crisis.”</em></p>
<p>Virgin Atlantic said staff taking unpaid leave will “drastically reduce costs without job losses”.</p>
<p>The cost to staff will be spread over six months of salary.</p>
<p>The airline will reduce its flight schedule by 80% and ground three out of four planes by March 26 due to a drop in passenger numbers and an increase in travel restrictions.</p>
<p>The proportion of aircraft which will be parked will rise to 85% in April.</p>
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