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Boris Johnson’s televised media briefing in a London pub. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters
Boris Johnson announces closure of all UK pubs and restaurants
Cafes, gyms and leisure centres also told to shut from Friday evening because of Covid-19…
Boris Johnson took the extraordinary step of ordering pubs, clubs and restaurants across the UK to close on Friday, and announced an unprecedented wage-support scheme to try to prevent a tsunami of job losses.
Announcing the decision in the fight against the coronavirus, the prime minister said that he realised it went against what he called “the inalienable free-born right of people born in England to go to the pub”.
The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, revealed that the taxpayer would meet 80% of the wage costs of workers “furloughed”, or temporarily sent home, by firms hit by the crisis.