Data used to close pubs was ‘cobbled together’

MINISTERS have been accused of justif ying pub closures with “cobbled together” statistics, including a threemonth-old survey carried out in the US.

MPS in local lockdown areas were yesterday shown an “early analysis” purporting to prove that pubs were the biggest spreaders of Covid-19.

It comes as Sir Keir Starmer accuses Boris Johnson of causing “confusion, chaos and unfairness” by waiting until next week to announce a new local lockdown system while ministers argue over the details. Writing in today’s Daily Telegraph, the Labour leader says families and businesses now face a “weekend of uncertainty” because of the delay in announcing the three-tier system. He says decisions must not be made behind closed doors and that local leaders need to be “in the room” when restrictions are being considered.

The Prime Minister faced a widespread backlash against the policy of closing pubs and restaurants in the worst infected areas, which is expected to be confirmed on Monday. Elected mayors, who have been in regular discussions with ministers, said he had “lost the dressing room”.

As ministers scrambled to justify the policy, 149 MPS in the North and Midlands from all parties attended a “scientific briefing” on the data.

The briefing, given by health minister Edward Argar and Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer, included a Cabinet Office document marked “early analysis” which claimed that 29.8 per cent of “exposures” to Covid- 1 9 occurred in pubs and restaurants, with just 2.6 per cent of infections in people’s homes. But NHS Test and Trace figures show 75.3 per cent of transmissions happened in homes, with only 5.5 per cent in pubs, restaurants and churches.

The document also referenced a July report from the US Centres for Disease Control which found people testing positive were likely to have dined at a restaurant in the fortnight before symptoms emerged. The study involved just 154 coronavirus patients.

One Tory MP said: “It was very clear that they had cobbled together this data as a retrospective attempt to justify closing pubs.” Asked if there was evidence to back 10pm curfews, Robert Jenrick, the Communities Secretary, said it was “commonsensical” that the longer people spent in pubs the more likely they were to transmit the virus.