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Boris Johnson has been challenged to publish the scientific evidence behind the 10pm closing time for English pubs ahead of the MPs vote next week.
Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer said the public “deserved to know” the basis for the restriction and that if it cannot be justified, the rule should be revised.
Conservative MPs who oppose the measure may rebel in the Commons vote.
The prime minister said that the logic behind this had not changed and that it was designed to reduce the spread of the virus.
The two party leaders clashed over the effectiveness and fairness of national and local Covid restrictions in the Prime Minister’s Questions, with Sir Keir accusing the prime minister of incompetence and the prime minister saying that the Labor Party had supported the position. of the government and then changed his position.
All pubs, bars, restaurants and other hospitality venues in England are due to close at 10pm from September 24, as part of a package of measures to try to contain a wave of new cases in the north of England.
The ministers argue that it has had a “beneficial effect” on the spread of the virus in areas where the restriction had already been tested, but it has become a spotlight for discontent in conservative banks over Covid restrictions.
And regional leaders, including the mayors of Greater Manchester and London, have called for it to be reviewed amid concerns that it has caused large crowds to gather outside venues in some cities after closing time.
In other developments:
- All pubs and restaurants in Scotland’s central belt, including Glasgow and Edinburgh, will close for two weeks starting Friday amid tightening of restrictions.
- Pub operator Greene King has announced that it will close dozens of pubs with the loss of 800 jobs.
- Scotland’s prime minister will announce new restrictions aimed at curbing the rise in coronavirus cases.
- Transportation Secretary Grant Shapps has said he will outline a task force to implement a testing system for people arriving in the country from abroad.
- The Speaker of the Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, has urged MPs to cover their faces as they walk through Parliament.
Next steps in discussion
Regardless of how you look at the flood of statistics on coronavirus, the disease is still spreading, even though city after city is subject to additional limits.
Even before Nicola Sturgeon moved on Wednesday to try to break the spread in Scotland, SW1 ministers were discussing the next steps they should take to stop the acceleration of the virus.
As we have reported, the government is likely to introduce a tiered approach to classify different parts of the country with different spreads of diseases into different categories.
But the exact nature of the strictest form of restrictions has yet to be set in stone.
The Labor Party has said a vote is expected on whether to maintain or remove the 10pm closing time on Monday, although the government has not confirmed the date.
Sir Keir declined to say in which direction Labor would vote, telling the BBC that the prime minister “needs to make his case” on how the 10pm cutoff reduces broadcast and “the ball is very firmly in the air. his court. ”
Speaking earlier in Parliament, he said: “Is there a scientific basis for the 10 pm rule?
“The public and Parliament deserve to know. If there is, why is the government doing itself a favor and publishing it?
“If not, why doesn’t the government review the rule?”
In response, Mr. Johnson said that “the basis on which we established the reduction in hospitality was the basis on which he accepted it two weeks ago.
“And that is to reduce the spread of the virus and that is our goal.”
The prime minister accused Labor of withdrawing support for other restrictions, after his MPs were told to abstain in a vote Tuesday on maintaining the six-limit rule on social gatherings.
“What kind of signal does this send to the people of the country about the strength of the Labor Party and its willingness to enforce the restrictions?” added.
Infection numbers
During the heated exchanges, the Labor leader urged the prime minister to be frank with the public about whether local closures were working and to explain why some areas of the country were not subject to restrictions despite having a higher proportion of cases than those targeted. .
He said cases continued to rise in 19 of the 20 local council areas that had been subject to restrictions between late July and early August, including Bradford, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport and Wigan.
The Labor leader said that in Burnley, infection rates were 21 per 100,000 people when the restrictions were introduced, while it is now 434. In Bolton, it was 18 per 100,000, while it is now 255.
At the same time, he said additional restrictions were not being applied in the London Borough of Hillingdon, which is home to the prime minister’s constituencies of Uxbridge and Ruislip, despite having recorded weekly figures of up to 62 cases per 100,000 people.
This, he said, was a much higher figure than the infection rate in Kirklees in West Yorkshire (29 cases per 100,000 people) when restrictions were imposed there on July 30.
“The prime minister really needs to understand that local communities are angry and frustrated,” he said.
“So you will reach out to the people at Bury, Burnley and Bolton and tell them: what do you think is the core problem that’s causing this?”
“The prime minister cannot explain why an area goes into restrictions. He cannot explain what the different restrictions are and he cannot explain how the restrictions end.”
Johnson said the combination of local and national measures in place was necessary to cope with the continued strong increase in cases in Manchester and Liverpool, but also the rise in infections in the Midlands and London.
“The local and regional approach, combined with national measures, is still correct because two-thirds of those admitted to hospital on Sunday were in the northeast, northwest and Yorkshire,” he said.
Sir Keir questioned the prime minister about the effectiveness and fairness of local restrictions.
“Twenty local areas have been under restrictions for two months, in 19 of those 20 areas infection rates have risen,” he said, citing a new Labor Party analysis.
The trends highlighted in the report for those areas are correct.
In fact, only in Leicester did we see sustained declines in case rates during a local lockdown, but those rates rose rapidly as restrictions were loosened.
The problem with the Labor analysis is that a handful of the places mentioned have not been locked up premises for two full months.
For example, Oadby and Wigston faced additional restrictions in late June, but these were lifted after a month. They were placed under restrictions again on September 22.
At another point, Sir Keir said that areas in parts of northern England had been subjected to local restrictions at lower rates than those experienced in parts of the south that are not under any form of blockade.
This is true: Bury, Tameside, Stockport, and Wigan (to name a few) had case rates of between 20 and 30 per 100,000 people when they were first closed.
The London Borough of Hillingdon, the prime minister’s constituency, had rates of 46 cases per 100,000, while Redbridge had 57 and Barking and Dagenham 53, in the week ending Sept. 27, according to Public Health England.
And analysis by the BBC’s data team suggests that these rates have risen over the past week.
