Early closing for pubs and restaurants was not recommended by scientific advisers and was adopted by No 10 in an imitation of Belgium in response to evidence that drunken people were spreading the virus.
Scientists advising the government have warned that the measure is unlikely to be enough, while the industry said that it would “devastate” hospitality, threaten thousands of jobs and could backfire.
Boris Johnson told MPs yesterday that “what we’ve seen from the evidence is that, alas, the spread of the disease does tend to happen later at night after more alcohol has been consumed”. He defended 10pm closing as “one way we see of driving down the R [reproductive rate of the virus] without doing excessive economic damage” but apologised for measures
