Tory MPs push for Easter reopening of hospitality in lockdown roadmap
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The Tories’ group of lockdown sceptic MPs are pushing Boris Johnson to reopen hospitality by Easter in his roadmap out of the current Covid lockdown.
The forty-strong Covid Recovery Group (CRG) of Conservative MPs want the Prime Minister to outline a full reopening for the sector by 4 April, with the UK’s pubs lobby backing the stance.
Johnson will unveil his long awaited roadmap out of the second national Covid lockdown at 3.30pm today in the House of Commons.
A series of leaks to media outlets have suggested that pubs and restaurants will likely open for outdoor patrons by mid-April or the end of April.
Politico reports that Covid Recovery Group chairs Steve Baker and Mark Harper are already calling for that date to be brought forward to Easter to ensure a swifter reopening.
High-profile Tory MPs Esther McVey and Sir Graham Brady have also publicly called for the Easter opening of pubs.
Emma McLarkin, chief executive of British Beer and Pub Association, said she backed the call.
“With the vaccine rollout continuing apace, now is the time to commit to reopening our pubs in a commercially viable way so that thousands of communities and businesses up and down the country can begin to emerge from this crisis,” she said.
Harper went further this afternoon, telling the BBC that all restrictions should be binned at the end of April when the first nine vaccine priority groups have been jabbed.
People in these groups make up 99 per cent of Covid hospitalisations and deaths.
“By the end of april…by that point we will have vaccinated everyone over 50 and everyone over 16 who has a health condition who is vulnterbale to Covid,” he said.
“Once you’ve protected people that make up 99 per cent o the deaths from Covid, it doesn’t seem to me that lots of restrictions staying in palace are actually sensible.”
One Conservative MP, and CRG member, told City A.M. that they wanted the government to be flexible with the lockdown roadmap dates if Covid cases and deaths fall quicker than expected.
“I want to know that if data shows accelerating numbers against hospitalisation and serious illness – that [the Prime Minister] will keep the roadmap under permanent review.
“If we’re bound by evidence and data, and if the top 9 JCVI vaccine categories are done by April, is he prepared to revise the roadmap timetable?”
The UK’s number of Covid deaths is dropping rapidly, with the tally at 3,414 over the past seven days – a 27 per cent week-on-week decline.
Thecountry’s vaccine rollout has also been one of the fastest in the world, with more than 17m having received their first jab.
Covid numbers are expected to continue dropping rapidly as the vaccine rollout progresses, particularly after a study in Scotland showed the two available vaccines drove down Covid hospital numbers by between 85 and 95 per cent.