Restaurant owner Gary Usher has laid bare the "devastating" impact of the Government's Plan B announcement - revealing "100s and 100s of cancellations" were made in its wake on Wednesday night.
The award-winning chef, who operates six restaurants across the north west as Elite Bistros, spoke of his despair at the announcement of the new restrictions - which include a return to work-from-home guidance from Monday December 13 and mask-wearing in more public settings from Friday December 10, although restaurants are exempt.
He said on his Twitter account this morning: "Can't lie last night's plan b news is devastating for my industry.
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"I'm trying to think of positive things to say about getting through December but I don't have anything.
"On an absolute downer about this. Telling people to work from home has instantly ripped up Christmas reservations."
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 Kala on King Street in Manchester, Hispi in Didsbury and Sticky Walnut in Chester.
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."
But Manchester's night time economy adviser Sacha Lord said that every operator he had spoken to across the region last week had faced cancellations, while some venues have been reporting as much as 50 per cent of Christmas party bookings being cancelled or postponed amid Omicron fears.
