A restaurant owner has described the potential impact of the government's covid Plan B as 'devastating' to the hospitality industry revealing "100s and 100s of cancellations" followed Wednesday's announcement.
The award-winning chef Gary Usher who operates six restaurants across the north west as Elite Bistros, took to Twitter to voice his frustration at the raft of new rules - including guidance to work from home and face-coverings being required in more settings from December 10.
He said on Twitter: "Can't lie last night's plan b news is devastating for my industry. I'm trying to think of positive things to say about getting through December but I don't have anything.
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"On an absolute downer about this. Telling people to work from home has instantly ripped up Christmas reservations."
As reported in the Manchester Evening News, on Wednesday night he hit out at Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the timing of the announcement - amid the growing outrage over leaked videos where Government aides joked about a Christmas Party taking place at Downing Street during last year's lockdown.
He says he is now left with "hundreds and hundreds of cancellations" across his restaurant group, which include Wreckfish on Seel Street, Pinion in Prescot and Burnt Truffle in Wirral.
Gary tweeted: "At Elite Bistros we’ve done everything by the book with COVID & tried to do the right thing constantly closing the restaurants & following guidelines but personally I don’t now support plan B because I don’t respect or trust anyone making the decisions."
He went on to say he believes the hospitality industry has been "shafted" and said that since Boris' announcement: "We have taken 100's & 100's of cancellations for December across the six restaurants including a party of 70 on Thursday."
Last week a number of hospitality bosses across the region had spoken of their despair amid a "flood" of Christmas party cancellations after health boss Jenny Harries said publicly that people should limit social contact "where we don't really need to".
After she made her comment, the Government was quick to clarify that Christmas parties did NOT need to be cancelled under the current guidance.
Boris Johnson's spokesman went on to clarify that there is no government guidance to state parties must be cancelled, saying: "The prime minister has been very clear on this. On Christmas parties, we don't want people to cancel such events."
