PARLIAMENT’S bars will NOT stay open past 10pm so that MPs can enjoy a drink after curfew while normal Brits are slapped with a pub lockdown.
Under Boris Johnson’s new rules, pubs, bars and restaurants must offer table service only, and hospitality, leisure, entertainment and tourism businesses all have to close between 10pm and 5am.
New laws mean people must wear face coverings unless they need to remove them to eat or drink. Staff in shops, cafes, restaurants, bars and pubs must also wear face coverings.
But according to The Times, bars on the Parliamentary estate are not subject to the earlier closing time as they fall under the description of a “workplace canteen”. Staff and customers will not be required to follow the new rules on face coverings.
Visitors will also not be asked to provide a name and number on entry to the bars. Instead, responsibility will fall to a team which acts as a point of contact for any coronavirus cases among MPs and staff.
It comes after health minister Helen Whately defended the Government’s 10pm curfew for pubs and restaurants.
“As people drink more they tend to socially distance less. So one approach to keeping people socially distancing is to limit the amount of time that people are in places where they are drinking and then this breaking down of compliance with the rules,” she told BBC Breakfast on Monday.
“We have also seen in some of the places where there have been higher rates over the summer that sometimes bars have been the places where there has been an outbreak, so this is a reason why one of the actions we have taken is to have people stopping being out drinking at an earlier time.”
