Ministers at odds over face coverings in food shops
MPS demand clearer rules after Downing Street contradicts Health Secretary over masks
NEW rules on face coverings descended into chaos yesterday as Downing Street suggested they would not be mandatory in food shops just hours after Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, said they would be.
MPS urged the Government last night to clarify exactly where people would be required to wear masks after a series of conflicting statements, and Cabinet ministers taking different approaches to in-store rules.
It came as Luke Johnson, the former chairman of Pizza Express, suggested that forcing people to wear masks in shops was an attempt by ministers to reassure those “scared witless” by what he referred to as “project fear”.
In an interview for The Telegraph’s Planet Normal podcast, he said that the measures seemed more “about reassurance” than any “compelling evidence” they had a “significant benefit” in limiting the spread of Covid-19, but he argued that forcing people to wear masks would be a “constant reminder to everyone that this disease is taking over our lives.” Asked whether customers buying takeaway from chains such as Pret a Manger would have to wear face coverings from July 24, Mr Hancock told Sky News: “You do need to wear a face mask in Pret because Pret is a shop. In hospitality, so in a restaurant, there needs to be table service. If there’s table service, it’s not necessary. But in any shop, you do need a mask. So, if you’re going up to the counter in Pret to buy takeaway, that is a shop.”
However, when asked about the new rules several hours later, the Prime Minister’s spokesman told reporters that he did not believe the rules applied in outlets such as “sandwich shops”.
“We will be publishing full guidance shortly, but my understanding is that it wouldn’t be mandatory if you went in, for example, to a sandwich shop in order to get a takeaway to wear a face covering,” he said.
“It is mandatory, we’re talking about supermarkets and other shops, rather than food shops.”
Downing Street’s comments were later challenged by other Government sources, one of whom said: “You can’t have a situation where you can go into a Pret to buy a bag of crisps without a mask, but you can’t go into a corner shop to do the same thing.”
Earlier, Mr Hancock also said the Government had looked at whether face coverings should be recommended in workplaces but had decided against it. It came after The Telegraph revealed on Tuesday that the Department for Business had contacted employers’ organisations for their views on extending the guidelines to face coverings to include all public spaces, including offices and workplaces.
But Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of the British Medical Association, said: “The BMA believes that face coverings should be worn whenever physical distancing is not possible to prevent spread of infection. This includes situations in the workplace in which people cannot keep two metres apart, unless other mitigating action is taken, for example, the installation of effective plastic screens.”
Questioning the reasoning behind face coverings, Mr Johnson said: “I think it’s more about trying to reassure those scared witless that it’s safe to go outside, safe to go to shops. It acts as a constant reminder that this disease is taking over our lives, and it continues to reinforce the obsession and hypochondria around one illness to the detriment of every other aspect of life.”