Meanwhile PA Media Group last month repaid the £1.35m it received between April and December last year.
HMRC did not initially name any companies claiming furlough cash – covering 80% of a worker’s salary if they are put out of work, sometimes to be topped up by their employer – because of taxpayer confidentiality.
It has been able to do so since December because of a Treasury direction made under the Coronavirus Act 2020 when the scheme was extended.
In December and January the Guardian was the only national newspaper publisher to still be claiming furlough cash – somewhere between £50,000 and £100,000 each month.
It has now revealed it decided to return all the cash after revenues for the 2020/21 financial year remained “largely flat” on a better-than-expected £225m (£223.5m in 2019/20).