Tory donor Forte calls for social distancing orders to be relaxed
TORY donor and hotelier Sir Rocco Forte has accused the Government of putting “another nail in the coffin” of the tourist industry with two-metre social distancing and 14-day quarantine.
The 75-year-old, who gave £100,000 to Boris Johnson’s 2019 election campaign, said “many, many” travel businesses will go under yet ministers have introduced quarantine “just when there was a chance to save something out of the summer season”.
He claimed the two-metre rule had been plucked “out of the blue” but “made it impossible for people to open properly”.
“There’s no scientific evidence behind it,” said Sir Rocco, who is one of more than 500 travel, hospitality and hotel bosses who have formed the Quash Quarantine group to campaign against the Government’s restrictions. Although Forte hotels are reopening across Europe, they are likely to remain closed in the UK until the two-metre rule is abandoned.
“It’s still difficult, but one metre makes it possible,” said Sir Rocco, who paid for a victory party for Mr Johnson in one of his hotels when he won the Tory leadership election. “Many, many businesses in the tourist industry will go under. We are talking about millions of people who are going to lose their jobs.”
He also said quarantining people arriving in Britain for 14 days was not backed by science. “The chief scientific officer says it’s a political decision, not a scientific decision. We are closing down when the rest of Europe is opening up,” he added.
“Until Sunday you could come from Iran or Brazil, the two highest hotbeds of the disease, with impunity. All of a sudden on Sunday evening, no one could come in.
“What about the resorts [in Britain] which depend entirely on the summer seasons. Those people are not going to be able to function, they are not going to be able to survive.”