Rishi Sunak will return earlier than planned from a work trip to California to hold crunch talks with hospitality chiefs struggling with plummeting demand due to Omicron – as pictures showed nightlife has taken a battering.
Only a handful of revellers enjoyed festive nights in London, Newcastle and Leeds yesterday just days before Black Eye Thursday.
English cities were unusually quiet as commuters avoided the streets. The congestion level reported by TomTom in London at 8am was 40 per cent – the lowest level all week.
Today’s traffic levels were 33% in Birmingham, 36% in Manchester, 40% in Liverpool, 34% in Sheffield, 46% in Leeds, 28% in Newcastle, and 33% in Manchester.
Although Mr Sunak was in America on a planned trip by the Government to meet with tech leaders, his timing has been criticized.
Zoom allowed him to meet with leaders in hospitality, but one roundtable event was canceled due to clashing with an appointment with US healthcare executives. One of the British executives commented to the FT, saying that he had been too busy enjoying ‘organic kale’ smoothies.
CNN reported that Mr Sunak is now holding talks in person after cutting his visit short. He said that he understood this was a worrying time for leaders in business across the nation. “I spoke with leaders in the business sector and I have decided to curtail my trip so that I can leave sooner tonight.
The Chancellor insisted ministers were not telling people to cancel their Christmas events, adding: ‘The situation is very different to what we’ve done and encountered before. The Chancellor said that ministers were not asking people to cancel Christmas events and they aren’t closing businesses.
Following the recent spread of the variant, and Covid’s advice to be more cautious before Christmas, cancellations have been a common occurrence in the hospitality sector.
But Mr Sunak insisted ministers were already helping, telling the BBC: ‘Until spring next year most businesses are only paying a quarter of their business rates bill, they are benefitting from a reduced rate of VAT all the way through to next spring, and thirdly there is about a quarter of a billion pounds of cash sitting with local authorities to support those businesses.’
A quiet Soho in London last night. The streets are normally packed this time of the years – but only one day prior to Black Eye Friday
The restaurant was empty in Newcastle, whereas there were a handful of revellers out in the bars.
Yesterday night, three women dressed up as Santa Claus were out with friends in Newcastle’s city center. It was quieter than normal.
There were queues at some bars in Newcastle. It was quiet, however, for this time of year which is usually the busiest.
This morning, London Bridge Underground station was empty after commuters were asked if they could work at home.
Today’s empty London Bridge escalator. The fall in passenger numbers will be another blow for Transport for London, which is struggling with record debt
LONDON: English cities were eerily quiet this morning too as commuters continued to stay away. The congestion level reported by TomTom in the capital at 8am was 40 per cent – the lowest level all week
LIVERPOOL: Traffic levels at the same period today were 40 per cent in Liverpool (pictured), 33 per cent in Birmingham , 36 per cent in Manchester, 34 per cent in Sheffield, 46 per cent in Leeds and 28 per cent in Newcastle
Restaurants and pubs have been closing their doors early at Christmas because of a double whammy: staff absenteeism and soaring consumer confidence.
One restaurant said that it was impossible to keep their doors open because of coronavirus infected staff.
Yesterday, Mr Sunak, Chief Secretary to Treasury Simon Clarke, called firms such as Prezzo, Black Sheep Brewery and Nando’s.
Labour called upon the government to create a support package to the sector, but ministers still have not committed to any cash.
As Omicron surges, it is possible that hundreds of thousands of Covid cases could be recorded in the UK by Christmas Eve.
This could lead to millions of Brits being forced to live in isolation and potentially disrupting key industries as well.
After Professor Chris Whitty advised people to restrict socialising, the hospitality industry accused Boris Johnson that he has imposed a “lockdown by stealth”.
Yesterday Mr Johnson denied making the claim, telling reporters, ‘We are not saying we want to cancel stuff. We’re also not locking down anything. The fastest path back to normality, however, is to get boosted.
Some restaurants and pubs are closing down because their staff has contracted Covid, and they aren’t available to take bookings. Most venues are still open, and only a few large chains have closed.
Yesterday Evelyn’s Table, a London society favorite in Soho was forced to close due to “members of the core team being isolated”.
Leeds revellers continued to party last night during what was normally one of the busiest nights in the year
A male friend helps a woman with her shoes during a Leeds night out
Newcastle: A group of friends poses for the camera. Restaurants and bars are smarter because of lower demand
Barrafina Drury Lane of Covent Garden stated that staff were isolating made the services’ viability in question, and Kol at London’s Marylebone claimed it had no choice but to temporarily shut down while the ‘key team members isolate.
Darjeeling Express, near Leicester Square, reported that there was a double whammy in staff sickness coupled with large cancellations of groups. Blend Kitchen in Sheffield stated it saw a half-million bookings drop.
British Chambers of Commerce President Baroness Ruby McGregor Smith warned yesterday that virus cases rose to an all-time high of 88.376 and resulted in 146 deaths.
Britain could have as many as 460,000 Covid cases daily by Christmas Eve. This would put two million people in isolation, if the infections keep increasing as fast as scientists believe. These large numbers can cause major disruptions to services in the event that people are absent from work.
Although government contingency plans allow for military personnel to be called into the service to fill in any gaps, such as those in the NHS, Border Force, and energy workers, these troops are not tested in real life. Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospital Trusts in London reported that 10% of their staff is currently absent due to Covid.
If there were 463 704 people who test positive every day, that would mean that Christmas Eve will see 463 704. This would place the nearly 1.9 million people who have tested positive in the last 10 days into isolation, which is equivalent to 3% of the total population.
Experts claimed that such large numbers could paralyse parts of the country and cause a ‘huge disruption’ to people’s work and threaten key services like the NHS, police and other public safety agencies. Figure 1: Covid data shows how many NHS workers have missed work over the last week. The December 5, 12 and 13 dips were on Sundays when there are fewer employees working, and so fewer absences can be expected. In the next weeks, figures are likely to rise
