The boss of restaurant chain Wahaca has issued a plea to ministers over fears that the hospitality sector could be about to lose millions of workers.
MasterChef winner Thomasina Miers has joined forces with 12 chief executives from high street brands including Burger King, pub chain Fuller's and TGI Fridays, to ask Chancellor Rishi Sunak for a lifeline for Britain's restaurant sector.
It follows the collapse of Carluccio's and Chiquito in the past month, while today, it emerged Parisian cafe Le Pain Quotidien could be on the brink of administration.
"Our industry has been hardest hit by the coronavirus crisis, and it will be the last to recover," Miers told the Mail on Sunday.
Her Mexican restaurant chain, Wahaca, remains closed to the public, with 1,000 staff on furlough for the foreseeable future.
The hospitality industry supports 4.5million jobs and contributes £130billion to the British economy each year – more than the aviation, car and pharmaceutical sectors combined.
Yet without help, she said two million jobs and half of restaurants could disappear from the high street - double the previous number.
"If nothing is done, we are talking about 50% of these businesses going under, and two million jobs will be lost. The impact of all those millions of people losing their jobs would be catastrophic for human lives, and equally catastrophic for the economy."
Under the new rescue plans, drawn up by entrepreneur Jonathan Downey in consultation with commercial landlords, businesses forced to close by social distancing rules would receive a nine-month rent-free period until January.
In return, landlords would be exempt from the repayments on their bank loans for the same period.
Unlike bailouts from other sectors, the proposals – called A National Time Out – wouldn't cost the taxpayer any more money.
Downey calls the plan, which Miers is supporting, "business sorting things out for itself". It just needs the Government to enact the legislation to allow it.
She said if landlords don't consent, they may not have any tenants left to fill their premises in nine months' time.
The figures come as UK Hospitality, the sector that representing restaurants, hotels and pubs, also called for ministers to extend the Government's Jobs Retention Scheme to July, warning that it could take months for the sector to bounce back after lockdown measures are relaxed.
For Miers, just two of her firm's landlords – Shaftesbury and Derwent, both in Central London – have so far agreed to a rent holiday.
"Landlords have to accept they are going to lose something in line with their tenants," she said.
"We need to come together to work out a solution that doesn't create a bloodbath in the hospitality sector.
'"None of us feel we will be back to normal in six months' time.
"A nine-month rent-free window would give businesses a chance to work out how they can get back up and running safely and successfully, and assess how the vaccine situation develops."
Miers co-founded Wahaca, a Mexican street food chain, 14 years ago after winning the first series of Masterchef.
"We are an industry that matters," he said.
"We are brilliant in getting people on a ladder of work. To make two million people unemployed would be a tragedy."
