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Shadow justice secretary David Lammy has mentioned that the introduction of a 22:00 curfew for pubs in England has led to individuals “effervescent out of pubs” on the similar time.
The Labour MP mentioned that drinkers had been “hanging round cities they usually’re doubtlessly spreading the virus”.
Mr Lammy questioned the “science” behind the brand new restrictions, saying: “It isn’t clear the place that got here from.”
However the tradition secretary mentioned: “There may be undoubtedly science behind it.”
Oliver Dowden, chatting with BBC One’s Andrew Marr Present, insisted: “That is why we’re requiring individuals to be seated in pubs and eating places, in order that stops the move of them to and from the bar.
“We’re lowering the closing instances to cease individuals staying later and consuming.”
“And the purpose about all of that is that everybody has their half to play. If all of us play by the principles, we will be certain that there usually are not additional, extra draconian restrictions,” the tradition secretary added.
Beneath the brand new restrictions, which got here into drive on Thursday, all pubs, bars and eating places in England are to close no later than 22:00 every night time. They’re additionally restricted to desk service solely.
However considerations have been raised by each companies and neighborhood teams that the brand new curfew encourages prospects to all go away without delay and to hold on consuming collectively at one individual’s house.
Brewer and pub chain Greene King instructed the BBC: “With out the same old sluggish ‘wind-down’ time that pubs would see with a gradual closure, prospects had been all leaving without delay which offered extra of a problem for the pub groups managing individuals’s security on exiting the premises.
“We now have additionally seen examples of individuals leaving our pubs to purchase alcohol in outlets to drink elsewhere,” its assertion mentioned.
It’s calling on the federal government to rethink most of the measures – which had been launched for the reason that variety of Covid-19 infections began to extend once more.
They urged further assist for the hospitality trade: “The measures haven’t been nicely thought via and the mixed affect of [the curfew], the challenges of desk service-only and the truth that the federal government are unfairly concentrating on the hospitality sector has had a cumulative adverse affect.”
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The boss of the Wetherspoon pub chain has additionally questioned the introduction of the 22:00 curfew.
Tim Martin mentioned on Tuesday: “The principle downside with the 22:00 curfew is that it is one other random and arbitrary transfer by the federal government, which lacks logic or scientific credibility.”
He mentioned that it might scale back gross sales for “hard-pressed” pubs and eating places, whereas additionally rising “the extent of unsupervised socialising” at house and elsewhere.
Talking on the Marr present, Prof Mark Woolhouse, who sits on the federal government’s advisory physique that fashions pandemics, mentioned that modelling of the impact of the brand new curfew had not been carried out to his data.
He defined: “The fashions don’t have the form of granularity that you would be able to discover intimately for closing instances for pubs, and even completely different variations of the rule of six that we now have across the nation.
“So these types of issues should be judgement calls based mostly on the general public well being proof.”
After falling from their April peak, confirmed new coronavirus instances within the UK have been rising once more since early August.
On Saturday, the nation recorded 6,042 new instances. It was the fourth day in a row that new infections throughout the UK have topped 6,000.
BBC Information has approached the Division for Enterprise for remark.
