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When all this is over – which we pray will be as soon as possible, we’ll look back and reflect on those who rose to the challenges of Covid-19 and those who didn’t. People and companies in both camps are already emerging.

Undoubted heroes include Captain Tom Moore, NHS staff and invaluable key workers who’ve kept Britain going when we needed them most.

The villains will be in a crowded group. It will include political leaders who ­mishandled the crisis by failing to get in enough PPE and sort coronavirus testing, and large ­businesses such as football clubs that furloughed staff despite paying the multi-million pound wages of their high-profile players.

Jostling for top position will be Sir Richard Branson who this week asked for a £500million bailout to save his airline – while the Virgin Australia airline business has already entered administration.

(Image: PA)

Virgin was for decades a byword for British business success, a company that gave the country jobs and pride. I’ve met Branson over the years and always found him charming, with great stories.

In many ways he felt like a bit of a national treasure. Of course the last thing anyone wants to see is any British brand go under.

But, as billionaire football club owners have found out, asking for money from hard working taxpayers at a time when people are literally going to work and risking their lives to save others, is not going to cut it.

Branson insists he’s asking for a loan and not a handout. But the fact he’s put up his £80million playground ­paradise, Necker Island, as collateral makes him sound like a cartoon Bond villain who’s got his sums wrong.

What sticks in people’s craw the most is the fact that he’s a tax exile who hasn’t paid tax in Britain for the past 14 years.

He argues Virgin Atlantic pays UK wages of around £450million and contributes around £350million to HMRC annually. But it’s still not a good look for someone worth over £3billion.

What he’s doing may be perfectly legal but sitting on billions while asking for taxpayers to bail out your company just doesn’t seem fair.

What is fair is that people who want help from the system when they need it should also contribute during times when they don’t.