Shops could be banned from selling booze after 9pm to stop house parties after the pub

Andy Burnham has suggested that selling alcohol in shops should stop after 9pm to prevent huge crowds forming on streets and house parties following the 10pm curfew of bars.

The mayor has called for the government to lift the 10pm curfew explaining that he thinks it is ‘doing more harm than good’. 

Pictures from this weekend in many cities have surfaced showing large groups of people mingling on the streets following the pubs closing. 

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, Mr Burnham explaining that he had received police reports of supermarkets being ‘absolutely packed out to the rafters and lots of people gathering after 10pm’. 

Adding: 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.”

He continued: ‘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. If it is doing more harm and damaging businesses, then the government shouldn’t just plough on with it. It certainly requires urgent attention.”

The curfew has received huge backlash following the reveal of Public Health England’s figures that showed pubs and restaurants caused 3% of England’s outbreaks of coronavirus in the week before the new restrictions hit. 

Junior health minister, Helen Whatelsy has responded to Burnahm’s calls saying the government is keeping ‘an open mind’, and did not rule out speculation that the new stricter measures may come into force in Northern England and London.

She said: “There’s quite a lot of coverage in the papers about will there be further restrictions. I mean clearly we don’t want to do that, but I wouldn’t rule it out because you do need to get the Covid rates under control.”

Adding: “For anyone coming out of a pub or restaurant at 10 o’clock and thinking what to do next and tempted by the idea of going on and partying, I’d say think of the consequences of your actions.”

Burnham has urged the government to simplify the Covid-19 restrictions. Saying: “There is currently a dissonance between the national and the local requirements,”

“For instance, the rule of six does not apply in the same way in areas of local restrictions, where we’re required not to meet in the home and advised not to meet in public venues, and that is understandably causing confusion amongst the public.”

An open letter from 100 major hospitality firms has won backing from MPs, which explains half of the UK’s 100,000 hospitality firms fear they will not survive until the middle of 2021 and the curfew is making this ‘even harder’.