CHANCELLOR Rishi Sunak was hoping the initial take-up by 140,000 businesses for the UK Government’s furlough scheme would headline the daily Downing St press briefing but it was overshadowed by the continuing problem of getting Personal Protective Equipment for NHS staff.

This was underscored by Mr Sunak himself, who began the press conference not on the front foot, promoting the merits of the Job Retention Scheme, but on the back foot, defending the Government’s efforts to find as much PPE as possible.

He made clear the Government machine would "pursue every possible option" to secure the gowns, masks and aprons frontline staff need but pointed out there was competition for the equipment right around the world.

"This is an international challenge that many other countries are experiencing,” declared the Chancellor. “Alongside the efforts of British businesses, and our embassies around the world, we are working hard to get the PPE our frontline NHS and social care staff need."

He insisted there were regular shipments into Britain despite the highly publicised "unexpected delays" to a consignment of 400,000 protective gowns from Turkey. On Monday, some 140,000, he stressed, had been offloaded in a shipment from Myanmar.

"Absolutely everybody, working incredibly hard on the front line, deserves to have the equipment they need to do their jobs safely and we're working round the clock to make sure we can deliver on that,” explained Mr Sunak.

"We're improving our sourcing internationally and domestically to make sure we can get the PPE we need in what is a very challenging international context.

"But people on the front line can rest assured that we're doing absolutely everything we can and straining everything we can to get the equipment they need," he added.

Professor Yvonne Doyle, head of Public Health England, admitted a lack of PPE was a “concern" but again insisted officials were "working very hard" to improve the situation.

"Over this weekend I know, for instance, that 12m pieces have been delivered to 141 trusts and as has been said there is incredible work going on internationally in a very high burn rate situation.”

Earlier, Downing St highlighted a “significant global demand” with gowns in particular under pressure but also noted how there was a “global supply problem”; the Government was working with suppliers at home and abroad. It stressed that one billion pieces of PPE had been delivered to the UK.

A shipment from China of 25m gowns is expected soon. However, the scale of usage is extremely high; the NHS gets through 150,000 protective gowns a day.

Last night, it emerged that an RAF flight had left for Turkey to collect the consignment of 400,000 protective gowns for healthcare workers.

Meanwhile, the Chancellor revealed that the Government's furlough scheme - which guarantees 80% of wages up to £2,500 per employee - had received 17,500 applications an hour since it was launched at 8am on Monday, which meant by 4pm some 140,000 firms had applied for cash under it.

“The grants they will receive will help pay the wages of more than a million people; a million people who if had they hadn’t been furloughed would have been at risk of losing their job,” stressed Mr Sunak.

He explained that the businesses which had applied should get their cash within six working days.

While the Chancellor did not put a cost of the scheme to the taxpayer, the Resolution Foundation think-tank estimated the total cost of the opening day's applications alone would amount to at least £4.2 billion over three months.

Early indications from businesses trying to access the scheme were that the online portal was holding up well with officials saying the newly-built systems could hold up to 450,000 applications an hour.

Mike Cherry of the Federation of Small Business said: "Initial feedback about the job retention scheme has been positive... The real mark of success for this scheme will be money in employer back accounts by the end of the month."