10pm pub curfew is fuelling house parties, fears mayor
ANDY Burnham has called for an urgent government review into evidence from police forces across the country on the new 10pm curfew.
The Greater Manchester mayor warned that the new rule is ‘doing more harm than good’ after revellers spilled into the streets and gathered in supermarkets on Saturday night in Manchester city centre.
Mr Burnham said the curfew for restaurants and bars, introduced on Thursday, should ‘probably be lifted’. “I received reports (in Manchester city centre) that supermarkets were absolutely packed out to the rafters and lots of people gathering after 10pm,” he said. “There needs to be an urgent review of the emerging evidence from police forces.
“My gut feeling is that this curfew is doing more harm than good. It is potentially contradictory. It creates an incentive for people to gather in the streets or more probably, to gather in the home. That is the opposite of what our local restrictions here are trying to do. When probed on whether the 10pm curfew should be lifted, Mr Burnham said: “My gut feeling is that it probably should” before suggesting a 9pm cut off for alcohol sales in supermarkets.
He added: “I’m not here to score points, I’m looking for solutions here. I can understand what the government is trying to do.
“Let me give some suggestions. Perhaps there could be a 9pm curfew on the sale of alcohol in supermarkets and shops that would prevent the rush to shops once pubs have closed. That’s what we certainly saw on Saturday. The government has said the 10pm curfew is based on Belgium, but they also have police to disperse people on the streets.
“My personal feeling is that the curfew is probably doing more harm than good as it’s creating a major incentive for people to carry on drinking and partying at home. And that is where we are told the virus spreads - gatherings in the home.”
He added: “If it is doing more harm and damaging businesses, then the government shouldn’t just plough on with it. It certainly requires urgent attention.”
Health Minister Helen Whately has defended the government’s 10pm curfew for pubs and restaurants. She said: “We have also seen in some of the places where there have been higher rates over the summer that sometimes bars have been the places where there has been an outbreak so this is a reason why one of the actions we have taken is to have people stopping being out drinking at an earlier time.”