LOCKDOWN: NOW THE BACKLASH

Businesses and MPs blast rules – with 200,000 jobs facing axe this weekend

HUNDREDS of thousands of people face losing their jobs as more than half of England wakes up under a new lockdown today.

Industry leaders warned of ‘catastrophic’ business closures across the country because of the stricter rules.

Businesses pleaded with Chancellor Rishi Sunak to urgently extend financial aid.

The draconian rules could see around 200,000 workers in London’s hospitality sector lose their jobs this weekend, a trade body warned.

The capital was last night moved into the ‘high risk’ Tier Two of Covid-19 restrictions, alongside Essex, York and parts of Cumbria, Derbyshire and Surrey.

Businesses in those areas are not entitled to financial support that is provided to those in the more serious Tier Three category.

Sir Bob Neill, Tory MP for Bromley and Chislehurst, also warned of the mental health toll.

He told the Mail: ‘The measures are putting half the country in lockdown in all but name and there is a real problem particularly for older people who get lonely.

‘There is a big emotional burden for people.

‘Worst of both worlds for businesses’

We have already had spikes in mental health problems going up and there is a danger of health damage being done because of people not turning up to medical appointments.’

Sir Bob added that the lockdown measures were ‘illogical’ in his constituency, saying: ‘This will be disastrous for businesses in the hospitality sector. It can’t be right that businesses like pubs and restaurants are forced to operate at such a reduced level of capacity that they can’t actually turn a profit.’

There are also fears the capital’s transport network could be forced into a disastrous shutdown as Transport for London (TfL) burns through the last of its funding. Mayor Sadiq Khan has warned the crisis-hit operator could run out of money as soon as today.

Under the rules, the 26.7million people living in Tier Two areas are prevented from socialising indoors with anybody from another household, including in restaurants, cafes and pubs.

Richard Burge, chief executive of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, warned that ‘ businesses will fail’ unless the Treasury acts swiftly.

He added: ‘We are not recovering, we are back in survival mode.’

In a further warning, Mr Burge said that the business community would resist an additional twoweek circuit breaker lockdown unless the Government sets out a package of economic support.

Kate Nicholls, chief executive of the trade body UKHospitality, said that being moved into Tier Two ‘is a curse for businesses’.

Miss Nicholls estimated firms in central London would let around 200,000 people go this weekend alone. She said businesses ‘will be trapped in a no man’s land’ and it was ‘the worst of both worlds’.

It comes as hundreds of hospitality workers are expected to protest against recent restrictions outside Parliament on Monday.

Amy Lame, London’s night tsar, said that the tier system was ‘fatally flawed’ and called on the Government to scrap the ‘arbitrary’ 10pm curfew.

And Jeremy King, co-founder of the Corbin & King restaurant group, said: ‘Under the guise of saving lives the Government is justifying these ill- conceived and badly thought out initiatives ultimately to save their own skin.’

There are also fears that tube trains, buses and suburban rail services could grind to a halt if

Transport for London is unable to pay its obligations.

Sadiq Khan has accused ministers of failing to provide enough support to TfL at a time when ticket sales have dropped by up to 90 per cent. A City Hall source dismissed reports of an imminent shutdown of the transport network.

Hundreds of thousands of households also face paying up to £15 a day to use their cars after ministers demanded a dramatic expansion of the London congestion zone.

Downing Street is understood to have told TfL that it will not grant any emergency funding unless it agrees to extend the charging area by 80 per cent to cover everywhere between the capital’s north and south circular roads.

Meanwhile, Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association, said only 20 per cent of London’s cabbies are working. He said: ‘We are in an absolutely desperate position.’