Gove: Hospitality among last to exit lockdown

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove has said that hospitality businesses will be “among the last” to exit lockdown, as the government prepares to the relaxation of social distancing measures.

Speaking to Andrew Marr yesterday (19 April), Gove said: “Areas of hospitality will be among the last to exit the lock down, that is true, they will be among the last.”

However the minister refused to give any details of the governments to relax the restrictions.

The news comes just days after the government announced an extension to the coronavirus lockdown for “at least” a further three weeks.

The decision was announced at a press briefing which was led by foreign secretary Dominic Raab. During the briefing, Rabb said any change to the UK’s social distancing measures now would risk a “significant increase in the spread of the virus”, that would threaten a second peak of the virus and substantially increase the number of deaths. “It would undo the progress we have made to date,” he added.

He continued: “Early relaxation would do more damage to the economy over the longer period. I want to be really clear about this, the advice from Sage is that relaxing any of the measures currently in place would do more damage to both public health and our economy.

“Based on this advice, which we have very carefully considered, the government has decided that the current measures must remain in place for the next three weeks.”