(Updates with confirmation, background)
LONDON, March 25 (Reuters) - British finance minister Rishi
Sunak will say on Thursday how he will help self-employed
workers who risk losing income during a near shutdown of the
economy by the government as it tries to slow the spread of the
coronavirus.
Sunak last week took the historic step of announcing the
British state would pay 80% of the salaries of employed people -
capped at 2,500 pounds ($2,923) a month - for at least three
months in a bid to reduce an expected jump in unemployment.
A spokesman for Johnson said Sunak would set out details of
a support package for the self-employed on Thursday.
There are around 5 million self-employed people in Britain -
compared with roughly 28 million employees - and some have said
they have had no choice to keep working, despite government
advice to stay at home.
($1 = 0.8553 pounds)
(Reporting by Kate Holton, writing by William Schomberg and
David Milliken; editing by Estelle Shirbon)