Pubs prepare for last night out before 10pm Covid curfew kicks in tomorrow

Restaurant owners are seeing a wave of cancellations before Boris Johnson’s new Covid curfew kicks in tomorrow – as drinkers prepare to hit town and city centres for one final evening of late-night drinking.

One restaurant boss says he could lose up to 20 per cent of his evening trade following the new measures announced yesterday by the Prime Minister.

The new rules, which also ban customers from ordering from the bar, come as the government aims to avoid a second national lockdown in the face of rising coronavirus infection figures.

But just hours after the announcement was made by Mr Johnson in a televised address to the nation, food establishments which are only just recovering from months of full Covid lockdown were faced with a wave of cancellations from concerned customers.

George Madgwick, who runs The Wicks Bistro, in Cosham, near Portsmouth, said he has already had eight cancellations from worried diners who had booked late-evening tables.

Mr Madgwick, 30, who started the business in February, a month before lockdown began, said: ‘People don’t want to rush and are worried because it’s not last orders at 10pm, it’s everyone out the door at 10pm. 

‘It’s taken away our ability to do three sittings in a night. Around 50 per cent of our business comes in at 7.30pm and we get around 20-25 per cent for 5pm tables, so the 8.45pm tables is about 20-25 per cent of our nightly business.

‘We’ve already had eight cancellations since the announcement and in the last 24 hours we have had zero bookings after 8.30pm, when we would normally have three or four. 

Mr Madgwick says the cost to the business could be around £300-a-night. But he says the biggest impact of the curfew will be on his staff.

He said: ‘Instead of working until 11.30pm everything has to close at 10pm so it will be more like 10.15pm, which is an hour and a quarter less hours every day.

‘It also has an impact on our supplies because we will be using less. We use local suppliers so it has an impact down the chain as well.’

Meanwhile Dean Mac, owner and founder of cocktail bar 186 in Manchester also said he has lost business following the curfew announcement. 

He said: ‘The 10pm curfew essentially means our bookings have been cut in half.

‘Since the announcement, we’ve had to follow up with each and every guest booked in and make them aware of the changes, including changing our entire infrastructure so we can look to open earlier and keep ourselves in operation.

‘Essentially we’ve had to cancel 50 per cent of our reservations as they are often made for around 9pm or 10pm.

‘To us it felt like some form of normality was returning and we were finding our feet again, only to have the rug pulled out from underneath us.

‘It feels like the hospitality industry has been used as a scapegoat by the government.’ 

It comes as party-goers are expected to hit town and city centres across the country tonight ahead of the rule changes, which will see pubs, bars and restaurants close at 10pm.

The rule is part of a series of new measures announced yesterday by the Prime Minister, as the government aims to avoid a second national lockdown in the face of rising coronavirus infection figures. 

But hours after the announcement was made, scores of revellers descended onto the streets of London, Leeds and Birmingham to max-out their drinking time ahead of the curfew starting on Thursday. 

Party-goers, including those who had recently arrived in Leeds and Birmingham to begin their academic year at university, swapped a night in at home to hit the numerous pubs and bars in the area and celebrate with their friends.

Crowds of alcohol-fuelled revellers appeared in high spirits as they huddled in large groups without face masks and walked onto the streets of Leeds city centre into the small hours amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile others were spotted queuing outside The Bristol Pear pub in Selly Oak, Birmingham, to enjoy a drink and mark the start of the academic year.

The scenes came just hours after the Prime Minister set out a raft of measures designed to clampdown on the virus, which has so far claimed more than 40,000 lives and infected more than 400,000 people in the UK.

As well as the curfew, which Mr Johnson is adamant that premises must follow and kick out all of their customers by the cut off point, the hospitality sector will also be restricted to table service only as the Government outlawed drinkers making a trip to the bar.

All retail workers and customers in indoor hospitality settings will be required to wear masks – except when they are seated to eat or drink – while all workers who can work from home are now being encouraged to do so from tomorrow.

Fines for breaking the rule of six and for failing to wear a face covering are increasing to £200 for a first offence.

The police will now have the option of asking the military for support with soldiers potentially being drafted in to guard protected sites in order to allow officers more time to crackdown on rule-breakers.

Members of the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) said the curfew would not be enough to slow the rate of infection.

But Mr Johnson insisted his approach was based on trying to ‘balance saving lives with protecting jobs and livelihoods’.

However, he said he reserved the right to ‘deploy greater fire power’ should it be necessary.

Mr Raab today said a second national lockdown could be needed to control the spread of coronavirus if the latest measures do not work.

He told Sky News: ‘We’ve always said we’ve got a sort of repository of measures in the arsenal to take.

‘I don’t think we would speculate about what further could be done.

‘But the reality is they will be more intrusive or we could end up in a national lockdown. That is what we want to avoid.’

The Foreign Secretary said that if ‘everyone plays by the rules’ then a national lockdown may not be needed at Christmas.

He said: ‘Let’s hope that we can get through the winter months if we take these measures and if everyone plays by the rules, and we go into Christmas not needing to go into that national lockdown with all the impact on society and families but also the damage it would do to businesses.’

Mr Raab also defended the Government’s 10pm curfew on hospitality, despite figures suggesting just five per cent of coronavirus cases are linked to pubs, bars and restaurants.

‘We know that in bars and restaurants, particularly after people have had a few drinks, as you go into the later hours of the evening, that there’s a risk that the compliance with the guidance ebbs a little bit,’ he said.

‘So we’re taking this measure, we’re confident based on the evidence that we’ve got domestically and internationally that it’s one element of those that we need to make.’

The new rules will be a particular blow to students who already faced a wildly different ‘Freshers Week’ due to government’s previous Covid restrictions. 

In September, students arriving to Birmingham were urged to stick to social distancing rules and Covid gathering guidelines to prevent outbreaks of the virus at universities in the city. 

It came after the city, which is home to more than 1.5million people, was hit with draconian lockdown rules after the number of coronavirus patients being admitted to hospitals in the city soared.

This month people in Birmingham and neighbouring Solihull and Sandwell were banned from mixing with anyone outside of their own household in private homes, pubs, restaurants or in gardens.

The move followed two days of crunch talks between the Government and local health leaders after Birmingham’s seven-day infection rate rose to 78 cases per 100,000. 

Meanwhile Leeds was teetering on the brink of a local lockdown and was placed on Public Health England’s list of areas of concern after the Yorkshire city, which is home to half a million people, saw its infection rate rise to 32.4 new cases per 100,000 people.  

Earlier this month thousands ministers discouraged young people preparing for university from attending Freshers’ events, with Health Minister Lord Bethell urging freshers and returning university students to resist going to mass social gatherings ‘in pubs, clubs and bedrooms’.

Meanwhile, Universities Minister Michelle Donelan furiously warned large event organisers that police will take ‘serious action’ against them, following reports that some companies have been advertising mass social Freshers’ events.

And Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, pleaded with students to ‘follow the rules’ for ‘the sake of your education and your parents’ and grandparents’ health’. 

Health Minister Lord Bethell said: ‘We are deeply concerned about the spread among students. Some of that spread will take place in universities, and I pay tribute to the efforts of vice-chancellors to put in place social distancing arrangements in universities; we hope that they will have an impact.

‘However, some of the effect is in their social life – in pubs, clubs and bedrooms up and down the country.

‘That is the responsibility of the students themselves, and we are looking at measures to enhance and enforce the social-distancing measures that will stop the spread of this disease.’ 

The scenes come as Boris Johnson today announced a new wave of Covid-19 restrictions that could last up to six months- including a 10pm curfew on bars, pubs and restaurants in England.  

The 10pm curfew on the hospitality sector has sparked an immediate industry backlash as the UKHospitality group said it was ‘another crushing blow’.    

There are also fears the move could have unintended consequences amid warnings of a potential ‘surge of unregulated events and house parties’.

Tory MPs also expressed concerns about the curfew plans, describing them as a ‘terrible blow’ for the hospitality industry and warning there must not be another ‘major lockdown’.

It was claimed overnight that Mr Johnson had initially backed a total shutdown of the hospitality and leisure sectors before Chancellor Rishi Sunak persuaded him to take a less severe course after warning of economic carnage.   

Under the new measures, plans for a partial return of sports fans to stadiums from October 1 have been ‘paused’ while the number of people allowed to attend weddings is being reduced to 15. 

Mr Johnson also announced the end of the Government’s back to work drive, urging Britons to work from home if they can.

Face masks will also have to be worn on public transport and in many indoor spaces, including shops, shopping centres, indoor transport hubs, museums, galleries, cinemas and public libraries. 

Those who fail to wear face masks could face a fine of £200.

Just hours after setting out the new measures, the Prime Minister issued an emotional plea to the nation and warned Britons they faced a long hard winter of police-enforced curbs on their freedom to see off coronavirus.

He also hit out at his critics – including Tory MPs and business leaders who warned of the economic impact of the tough measures, adding: ‘To those who say we don’t need this stuff, and we should leave people to take their own risks, I say these risks are not our own.

‘The tragic reality of having Covid is that your mild cough can be someone else’s death knell. 

‘And as for the suggestion that we should simply lock up the elderly and the vulnerable – with all the suffering that would entail – I must tell you that this is just not realistic.

‘Because if you let the virus rip through the rest of the population it would inevitably find its way through to the elderly as well, and in much greater numbers.’            

Despite the PM’s new crackdown, some experts have already warned the measures will not be enough after Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said yesterday the UK could hit 50,000 cases a day by mid-October and 200 plus daily deaths by November unless Britain changes course.