New restrictions including a 10pm curfew for pubs and restaurants could remain in place for six months as the UK battles coronavirus beyond Christmas and into the spring, prime minister Boris Johnson has said.
The prime minister announced a swathe of new measures, including a requirement for pub and shop workers and taxi passengers to wear face-coverings, a limit of 15 on attendance at weddings and receptions and a ban on indoor sports involving more than six people, such as five-a-side football. Customers in hospitality venues will be required to cover their faces except while seated to eat or drink.
Office employees are to be advised to work from home if it is possible, while those in sectors like health, education, construction and essential public services will be encouraged to keep going to their workplaces.
New laws will make it a legal obligation for operators of hospitality and retail premises to ensure that customers comply with the rules. And fines for breaching the ‘rule of six’ limit on the size of social gatherings or failing to wear a face-mask will be doubled from £100 to £200.
As expected, the PM called off plans to allow fans back into major sporting events and reopen conferences and exhibitions from 1 October.
The new rules announced by the PM in a sombre statement to the House of Commons apply to England only, but Mr Johnson said that after discussions with the first ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in the government’s Cobra emergency committee, he expected them to take similar steps.
Mr Johnson said that the UK stood at a “perilous turning point”, after scientific and medical experts advised that daily infections could hit 50,000 by mid-October if action was not taken to damp down the disease.
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But he insisted that the restrictions announced today were “by no means a return to the full lockdown” seen in the spring.
Declaring that “this is the moment when we must act”, Mr Johnson said he was taking steps calculated to reduce the spread of coronavirus – known as R and currently well above the crucial level of one at which the disease can grow exponentially – while avoiding the need to shut down schools or impose blanket controls on the wider economy.
In a gloomy message which threatens to dash business and family hopes of a normal Christmas, the prime minister said: “Unless we palpably make progress then we should assume that the restrictions I have announced will remain in place for perhaps six months.”
Mr Johnson said the government will provide police and local authorities with the extra funds needed to ensure a greater police presence on our streets, with the option to call in troops to provide additional support.
His offer of military assistance got a cold welcome from the Police Federation, who said the prospect of troops on the streets enforcing Covid rules was “not needed and has not been asked for”. But aides said any military involvement would be purely logistical, taking on responsibilities such as guard duties at sensitive sites to free up police officers, as has been the case throughout the crisis.
Mr Johnson told MPs that the number of Britons testing positive for coronavirus had quadrupled over the past month. The government must “act now to avoid still graver consequences later on”, he said.
Boris Johnson lists new coronavirus restrictions
New restrictions were “carefully judged to achieve the maximum reduction in the R number with the minimum damage to lives and livelihoods”, he said.
He told MPs: “I want to stress that this is by no means a return to the full lockdown of March. We’re not issuing a general instruction to stay at home.
“We will ensure that schools, colleges, universities stay open because nothing is more important than the education, health and well-being of our young people.
“We will ensure businesses can stay open in a Covid-compliant way. However we must take action to suppress the disease.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who used his keynote speech to the party’s virtual conference this morning to denounce the PM’s “serial incompetence” in the coronavirus crisis, said that he would support the measures set out by Mr Johnson.
But he said that families were worried that “the Government doesn’t have a strategy”.
He added: “One day people were encouraged to work in the office, in fact more than encouraged they were openly challenged by the Prime Minister for not doing so, today they’re told the opposite.
“This is a time of national crisis but we need clear leadership.”
Mr Johnson rejected a call from Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey to apologise for his “gross incompetence on testing, on tracing, on clear communications that have led to these restrictions on people’s daily lives”.
The PM insisted he was “proud” of the performance of the NHS Test and Trace system, which he said was now conducting more tests than any other country in Europe.
The new requirement to wear face coverings in taxis comes into effect on Wednesday, while the curfew and table-service rule for hospitality venues, the new rules on face-coverings in shops, pubs and restaurants and the application of the rule of six to indoor sports start on Thursday.
The new restrictions on weddings do not come into force until Monday, allowing anyone scheduled to get married this weekend to go ahead as planned, while those waiting until the following weekend may have to prune their guest list.
Companies in the leisure, entertainment, tourism sectors and those offering close contact services like nail bars will have new obligations from Monday to ensure staff and customers observe the rule of six and social distancing.
