Boris Johnson ‘to order pubs in northern England to close from Monday’
The PM is expected to announce new restrictions on the hospitality sector in huge swathes of the north including Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Nottingham.
Boris Johnson is reportedly drawing up plans to order pubs and restaurants across northern England to close.
The PM is expected to announce new restrictions on the hospitality sector in huge swathes of the north where coronavirus cases are rising.
This will include Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Nottingham, according to the Financial Times, which states a decision by senior ministers to tighten measures is expected by the weekend.
A report in The Sun also claims that hospitality restrictions are being mulled over and could come into effect from Monday.
The newspaper claims Chancellor Rishi Sunak will bail out businesses and workers impacted by the curbs, which are likely to face backlash from within Tory ranks.
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The PM is already facing a rebellion over England’s 10pm curfew, which is set to be retrospectively voted on next week.
Despite mounting unease within the Conservative party over restrictions on people’s liberties, Mr Johnson is said to be sticking to his guns and tonight privately vowed to clamp down further.
Huge parts of the north are already on lockdown but infection rates have continued to soar. The tighter measures will reportedly see the hospitality sector forced to shut but schools, offices and shops kept open.
Ministers are said to be torn on what to do about hairdressers, gyms and leisure centres.
Mr Johnson is expected to unveil his simplified three tier local lockdown code – nicknamed the ‘Rule of 3’ as early as next week.
Reports suggest areas in Tier 1 will see current social distancing measures and the current rule of six enforced, areas in Tier 2 will be hit with a ban on households mixing and areas in Tier 3 will face a hospitality lockdown
It is understood that London and other less-affected regions are not yet in line for sweeping new restrictions.
This could cause anger from critics who have accused the government of London-centric thinking and treating Tory heartlands differently to areas in the north with similar infection rates.
It comes after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon banned pubs and restaurants from selling alcohol indoors under a 16-day circuit breaker lockdown that will come into force on Friday.
The announcement was met with despair from the hospitality sector, which will be supported with £40m extra in funding.
Justifying the ban, Ms Sturgeon said inebriation could ‘affect people’s willingness to physically distance’. She said it would also reduce the virus spreading from household to household.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock had hinted that the Government was mulling over similar plans to crackdown on the hospitality sector during a conference call with the Confederation of British Industry.
He said: ‘Outside your household and socialising between households, the highest place in incidence of likely transmission, measured by where people have contacts, is unfortunately hospitality. Now obviously that finding is not good news in terms of the policy action we have to take for that sector.’
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