Face masks may have to be worn in ALL public places including offices and other workplaces
Sadiq Khan accuses Boris Johnson of ‘risking the health of the public’ to cover Michael Gove’s back after another mask U-turn as Downing Street insists takeaway outlets will NOT be covered by rules – just hours after Matt Hancock said they WILL
- Health Secretary Matt Hancock struggled to explain new rules on wearing masks coming in from July 24
- He insisted that venues such as Pret will be covered when people buy coffee to take away, but not eat in
- Within hours Downing Street insisted that takeaway outlets will not be covered by the new rules in England
- London Mayor branded it ‘ridiculous’ and said virus ‘doesn’t know if you’re in a take-away or a supermarket’
- Shoppers not wearing face masks likely to be refused service and could face a £100 fine under new system
- Mr Hancock said masks will be need for ‘foreseeable future’ but denied they will be compulsory in offices
By James Tapsfield, Political Editor For Mailonline and Joe Middleton and Tom Pyman For Mailonline
Published: 21:00 EDT, 14 July 2020 | Updated: 14:20 EDT, 15 July 2020
Sadiq Khan today accused the government of ‘risking the health of the public’ to spare Michael Gove’s blushes, as No10 performed its latest U-turn on masks, claiming they are not necessary in takeaway food outlets – just hours after Matt Hancock suggested the opposite.
Mr Gove – who dismissed the idea of making face coverings compulsory in shops at the weekend, saying it was best to ‘trust’ the public to make a personal decision – was widely criticised for emerging without one from a Pret in London yesterday.
This was despite cabinet colleagues Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak being pictured protecting themselves at the store, while Boris Johnson was also seen wearing one earlier this week, hinting at a clear blanket rule for all on the high street, coming into force in England on July 24.
That appeared to be the view of Health Secretary Mr Hancock, who insisted this morning that coverings will be required in venues like Pret when people buy things to go.
He suggested that the crucial point was that people needed to wear masks if they were not receiving table service, and confusingly claimed that ordering at the bar is not permitted at pubs – despite official guidance saying it is.
However, within hours Downing Street added to the bafflement by indicating that cafes and eateries will not be included in the law, as the system will only apply in ‘shops and supermarkets’ in England.
The response sparked anger from Mayor of London Mr Khan, who tweeted: ‘This is frankly ridiculous. The virus doesn’t know if you’re in a take-away or a supermarket.
‘The Government is risking the health of the public to cover the back of a Cabinet Minister. Please wear a face covering in all shops and takeaways.’
Mr Gove finally fell into line today by wearing an NHS-branded face covering in Whitehall – having sparked a furore at the weekend by publicly making clear he did not think they should be required by law.
Amid the confusion, Mr Hancock gave a stark message that the edict on face coverings was not going to be lifted any time soon. ‘People will have to wear masks in shops and on public transport and in the NHS for the foreseeable future,’ he said.
Meanwhile, official guidance published by the government overnight has raised fresh doubts about how it can be policed. Despite the threat of £100 fines, the document says people can have a ‘legitimate’ excuse for not wearing a face covering if it causes them ‘distress’.
Amid growing disquiet at Labour’s refusal to take a position on a host of key issues, Sir Keir Starmer ignored the issue of masks entirely at PMQs.
The face mask confusion came as:
- A staggering 85 per cent of new Covid-19 infections in Blackburn with Darwen are among its South Asian population, a local health chief revealed today amid fears it will become the second place in England to be hit with a local lockdown because of a spike in cases;
- China has hit back after the UK said Huawei will be banned from the new 5G network, with all of the firm’s technology to be ripped out by 2027;
- Rishi Sunak delivered another strong hint that tax rises are looming today as he insisted the public finances will need to be put back on a ‘strong and sustainable’ footing;
- The Police Federation, representing rank-and-file officers, said it was ‘unrealistic and unfair’ to expect them to patrol the aisles looking for people breaking the coronavirus regulations;
Health Secretary Matt Hancock struggled to explain the new system coming into force from July 24 amid warnings from police that it will be completely unenforceable
Michael Gove finally fell into line by wearing a mask in Westminster today – after being pictured going into Pret yesterday with his face bare
Chancellor Rishi Sunak posted a picture of himself today wearing a covering while getting a takeaway from Pret
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, wearing a face mask, boards an ambulance to talk with a paramedic during a visit to the headquarters of the London Ambulance Service NHS Trust on Monday
Mr Hancock suggested pubs were table service only, but in fact ordering drinks at the bar is permitted where it is ‘unavoidable’
What are the rules on face masks?
The face mask rules vary across the UK.
In Scotland they are mandatory on public transport, and they became required in shops from last Friday.
In England, they have been required on public transport since last month. Anyone who fails to use one can be refused passage or hit with a £100 fine.
From July 24, face coverings will also be mandatory in shops and supermarkets in England.
Outlets ‘will be expected to encourage compliance with the law’ and can refuse entry.
The government’s guidance says: ‘In both cases, if necessary, the police have the powers to enforce these measures, including through issuing a fine of £100.’
Matt Hancock suggested this morning that cafes such as Pret will be covered by the rule when they are acting ‘as shops’, for example selling takeaway coffee.
However, those sitting down to eat in the same venue will not be required to wear face masks.
The advice adds: ‘You are also strongly encouraged to wear a face covering in other enclosed public spaces where social distancing may be difficult and where you come into contact with people you do not normally meet.’
Mr Johnson is due to announce a ‘roadmap’ for getting people back to offices as soon as this week.
It is expected to set out how workers can return safely over the next nine months, amid fears that town and city centres are being devastated by the death of the ‘lunchtime economy’ and low footfall.
Tories have voiced anger that despite the PM making public appeals for people to return to work, official guidance still states that everyone should ‘work from home if they can’.
Senior police officers have complained they were blindsided by the announcement that it will be mandatory to wear the facemasks in shops, with £100 fines if people refuse to comply.
The Police Federation, representing rank-and-file officers, said it was ‘unrealistic and unfair’ to expect them to patrol the aisles looking for people breaking the coronavirus regulations.
Mr Hancock said this morning that the rules could be in place for the ‘foreseeable future’.
‘The advice now is that face coverings are recommended in shops but not mandatory,’ he said.
‘That’s been the position for some time and we’re tightening that up to say that they’re mandatory from July 24,’ he said.
Mr Hancock said people would need to wear a face covering in Pret from July 24 because it is a ‘shop’, explaining: ‘In hospitality, so in a restaurant, there needs to be table service.
‘If there’s table service, it is not necessary to have a mask. But in any shop, you do need a mask.
‘So, if you’re going up to the counter in Pret to buy takeaway that is a shop…
‘But if you go to your local pub you can’t go to the bar… you can’t go to the bar. The reason there is the risk of transmission over the bar. Therefore it is table service, and a mask is not needed.’
In contrast, the government’s guidance states that bar service is allowed if it cannot be avoided.
‘Where bar or counter service is unavoidable, preventing customers from remaining at the bar or counter after ordering,’ the online advice says.
Asked about claims face masks will be mandatory in offices, Mr Hancock said: ‘We will not be recommending masks in the office,’
He added: ‘That isn’t going to happen and the reason is in offices you tend to spend a lot of time with the same people.
‘Where the mask benefits is from you spreading the disease to other people when you have relatively short interactions with lots of different people.’
Asked about the confusion over where face masks will be mandatory, the PM’s official spokesman said: ‘We will be publishing the full guidance shortly but my understanding is that it wouldn’t be mandatory if you went in, for example, to a sandwich shop in order to get a takeaway to wear a face covering.
‘It is mandatory… we are talking about supermarkets and other shops, rather than food shops.’
A woman wears a face covering whilst shopping in Canterbury, Kent, as the government prepares to make them compulsory
Shop assistants fear abuse over mandatory face coverings
Shop assistants have said they fear abuse from customers over mandatory face coverings.
Rizwan Ahmed, a shop assistant at a small supermarket in Maida Vale, London, said most customers arrive without face coverings despite signs requesting they wear one.
Mr Ahmed, 38, said: ‘I’ve been telling everyone (to wear masks), but people don’t care now.
‘Some people wear them, some don’t. Say we have 100 people pass through the shop, about 10 will be wearing a mask.’
He said having to enforce the new law will create a ‘difficult situation’ for shop assistants, adding: ‘There could be trouble, because some customers mind.’
Supermarket assistant Holly, 34, from Solihull, agreed the restriction is likely to cause tension between staff and customers.
She said: ‘We have had people become very irate when we have had to limit purchases and remind them about the one-way system.
‘So yes, I do think myself and the colleagues will get more abuse from members of the public. Especially our regulars who probably think we will let them off.’
She added the restriction is ‘too little too late’ and the police do not have time to deal with shoplifters, let alone people failing to wear a mask.
Victoria Szatmari, 28, who manages Peppermint cafe in Maida Vale, said she believes ‘most’ customers will be conscious about wearing a mask, but is ‘a little’ worried about whether she will be expected to enforce it.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said she supports the restriction, but warned that retailers must not be responsible for enforcing it.
Trade union Usdaw said the Government’s announcement on face coverings ‘leaves many questions unanswered’ and agreed enforcing the rule could become a ‘flashpoint’ for abuse.
Announcing the new rules yesterday, Mr Hancock said shopkeepers could call the police if customers refused to wear a mask.
But Brian Booth of the West Yorkshire Police Federation told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: ‘It’s very unhelpful when senior ministers make comments like that. It sets out a picture to the public that the police will be the face covering monitors and we simply don’t have the resources to do that.
‘It’s going to be a public led approach society as got to police itself and take a bit of responsibility here.
‘Shop workers, I’m sure they have the talent to politely ask people to put face masks on without any involvement from the police.’
The government’s guidance on masks published overnight states: ‘You do not need to wear a face covering if you have a legitimate reason not to.’
Among the reasons listed are if ‘putting on, wearing or removing a face covering will cause you severe distress’.
There is no further definition of what would constitute ‘distress’.
The decision to make face coverings mandatory in England’s shops, with exemptions for children under 11 and people with certain disabilities and breathing conditions, provoked fury in parts of the Conservative Party.
On social media, some grassroots members posted pictures of their cut-up membership cards, while in the Commons former minister Sir Desmond Swayne said ‘nothing would make me less likely to go shopping than the thought of having to mask up’.
He questioned whether police had been consulted about the move because they ‘will have to enforce this monstrous imposition against myself and a number of outraged and reluctant constituents’.
Mr Hancock told him: ‘Enforcement is for the police, but the enforcement, I think, will largely be undertaken by the British people themselves who have been remarkable in their fortitude, sticking with these rules even whilst they may be a frustrating imposition.’
NPCC chairman Martin Hewitt indicated senior officers were ‘unaware that the announcement was to be made last night’ but they had time to work on the measures before they come into effect.
‘We will expect retailers to manage entry to their stores and compliance with the law while customers are inside, with police involvement as a last resort,’ he said.
John Apter, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: ‘Policing the wearing of face coverings in shops can’t be a priority because we simply don’t have the resources.’
He added: ‘Only as this last resort should the police get involved.
‘To expect my colleagues to be policing the supermarket aisles, looking for those shoppers not wearing a face covering, is unrealistic and unfair.’
Paddy Lillis, general secretary of shopworkers’ union Usdaw said the Government must produce detailed guidance on the measure.
‘Usdaw expects the guidance to make it clear that shop workers will not be enforcing the wearing of face coverings,’ he said.
People wear face masks at the train station in Liverpool on Tuesday. They are set to become mandatory in shops
‘They are already dealing with more abuse than normal and this could be another flashpoint.’
Also raising questions over the enforcement of coronavirus rules, the latest data showed not a single person in England and Wales was fined by police for breaching quarantine rules after arriving from abroad.
And only 10 tickets were handed out to passengers for not wearing face coverings on public transport, the figures released by the NPCC on Friday showed.
JD Sports chief executive Peter Cowgill suggested his stores will offer face coverings to anyone not wearing them but said it will not be for his staff to enforce the law.
‘The guidance so far is that our store colleagues are not really to get involved and it’s a police matter to enforce rather than for them to get involved in any potential public disturbances,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today.
Federation of Small Businesses national chairman Mike Cherry called on the Government to deliver coverings or funding to buy them so customers are not turned away.
The shift in policy on masks follows a weekend of confusion over whether ministers intended to make face coverings compulsory after Boris Johnson said they were looking at ‘stricter’ rules.
Senior Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said on Sunday he did not believe they should be mandatory and that it was better to ‘trust people’s common sense’.
The Government has been urging people to wear face coverings in confined spaces such as shops since early May and they have already been made compulsory on public transport in England since mid-June.
The regulations will be made under the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984, with a maximum fine of £100, reduced to £50 if it is paid within 14 days.
Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said ministers needed to explain why it had taken them so long to act, accusing them of being ‘slow and muddled’.
MailOnline has been inundated with emails from business owners left perplexed and angry at the face masks diktat who fear that this will kill off their businesses as it was revealed that UK faces the biggest peacetime deficit in history with the risk of four million people out of work by next year – and the economy might not recover until 2025.
Jools Cardozo, who runs Farringdon and Forbes Home Interiors in Leamington Spa, said: ‘Our high streets are near deserted, businesses are being forced to close and now the government want to tighten that last nail in the coffin by imposing that all shoppers wear face masks! How utterly ludicrous. I am all for the safety of my staff and customers but imposing this on a random future date screams of desperation’.
Susan Carlin, who runs a corner shop, told MailOnline: ‘I doubt many of our customers will be willing to wear one – very very few do – and the staff will not be comfortable asking customers to wear one. But if we let in larger numbers without masks it makes mockery of the requirement’.
A customer wearing a face mask at a store in London on Tuesday. They will soon be mandatory from July 24 onwards
A further 21 people have died from coronavirus in 24 hours bringing the UK’s total death toll to 44,819
She added: ‘We had a good system in 2 metre social distancing which the customers adapted well and willingly to and we work behind a screen. I believe this is a totally unnecessary and an unenforceable rule which will cause huge discomfort for my staff’.
Do face coverings help reduce coronavirus transmission?
Initially many authorities, including the World Health Organisation (WHO), suggested face coverings were not effective in preventing the spread of Covid-19 but are now recommending wearing them in indoor spaces.
So, has the science evolved on face coverings?
A report recently published by the Royal Society suggests that even basic homemade face coverings can reduce transmission if enough people wear them.
Dr Julian Tang, who is an associate professor of respiratory sciences at the University of Leicester, said wearing face coverings in public places could keep the R value below 1 by creating an ‘artificial herd immunity’.
But Dr Simon Clarke, an associate professor of cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said that while face coverings may reduce the spread of cough droplets, robust epidemiological evidence on their benefits is still lacking.
Are there any benefits to wearing them?
Experts say the risk of coronavirus transmission appears to be higher in poorly ventilated indoor spaces and wearing face coverings in small shops or enclosed shopping centres could help reduce the spread.
In addition, there is also increased evidence which suggests that many people with the virus who do not have symptoms can still be contagious.
What does this mean for those looking to go back to the office?
Experts say wearing face coverings could provide an added line of defence amid growing evidence of airborne transmission of coronavirus.
Dr Tang said: ‘If half the people in the office wear a mask, it would increase artificial herd immunity to around 25%, which can reduce transmission overall within the office, just by reducing the number of people who are susceptible.’
Are there downsides to face coverings?
There are many indoor spaces, such as pubs and restaurants, where the use of face coverings may not be possible.
Some experts have also shared concerns that wearing face coverings may give the wearer a false sense of security, although Prof Neal said there is ‘no evidence to suggest that is the case’.
Are some face coverings better than others?
The WHO advises a three-layer face covering in the community – the outer layer should be water resistant, the inner should be water absorbent and the mid-layer acts as a filter.
The Government has said coverings can be made from scarves, bandanas or other fabric items, as long as they cover the mouth and nose.
But scientists at the Leverhulme Centre say some coverings are not as effective as others, with loosely woven fabrics, such as scarves, shown to be the least effective.
Moshe Schmahl, who works at Nat Jacobs Fishmongers in north London, said: ‘There is essential communication going back and forth between the monger and the customer.
With face masks on, it is extremely difficult to understand the other person. Let’s hope the government will provide some clarifications and exemptions’.
Dean Roddie, a director of seven carpet shops around Warwickshire, told MailOnline he has been ‘clawing some of his lost business back.’
He added: ‘We have been able to keep the 2 metre distance in our stores and have put in hand sanitiser and screens at desks and all seemed to have been going well until this madness with making masks compulsory.
‘I’m really worried this will massively affect our business, I believe people will just not bother coming out to buy a non essential item while having to wear a mask, sometimes our customers can be in our store an hour so it can be a long time to have the mask on especially when they will be 2m from our staff so there is no need for them to wear them.
‘I’m done with this government now, I’m a conservative member which will not be renewed. I personally will be doing my shopping online as I will not wear one.’
Andy Luckman of AJL Electronics and Classic Microcars in Gloucester added: ‘I have had a security rule in my shop which is that unless I can clearly see your face, you are not coming in. I have no intention of changing that rule for hysteria reasons.’
But many shoppers have taken to social media to say that they will still refuse to wear a mask calling the new rule ‘hysterical’ and Tory members have been cutting up their membership cards calling the face mask rules are the ‘final straw’.
It comes after French President Emmanuel Macron said yesterday that face masks will soon be required in public indoor spaces to curtail the coronavirus outbreak, acknowledging that infections were again on the rise.
His comments, in a television interview marking Bastille Day, came after he oversaw the traditional military ceremony that was drastically downsized because of the pandemic.
‘I would like to make masks mandatory in all enclosed public spaces,’ Macron said in the interview, a Bastille Day tradition he had shunned since taking office three years ago.
‘We have indications that (the outbreak) is accelerating a bit,’ he added, suggesting that his government would require masks in shops and public buildings from August 1.
He later posted on Twitter that ‘Wearing a mask in enclosed public spaces will be mandatory in the coming weeks.’
The virus reproduction rate, the ‘R’ ratio, has again risen above one in France, he said in the interview, meaning that a person infected with COVID-19 is likely spreading the disease to at least one other person.
Macron’s comments come as doctors have warned of a potential second wave of infections that could again overwhelm hospitals and require new lockdowns that could further hammer the economy.
Asked whether France had enough masks in case of a new spike in cases, following massive shortages as the outbreak worsened in March, Macron said: ‘We will be ready.’
‘We have secured both the stocks and the supply sources, and we are organised on the ground, to allow us to deal with an upsurge, if it comes,’ he said.
He also said the government’s ‘massive’ recovery plan would reach 100 billion euros ($114 billion), on top of more than 460 billion euros spent so far to limit the social and economic devastation from the two-month lockdown imposed in mid-March.
Priority will be placed on investments to fight climate change, he said, such as increasing freight transport by rail instead of trucks and providing subsidies for improving energy efficiency in homes and public buildings.
‘I believe we can build a different country within the next 10 years,’ he said.
