Pubs will be able to serve takeaway pints when they reopen for outdoor service from April 12, Boris Johnson confirmed today.
But drinkers sitting in beer gardens will still have to order booze to their tables, because queuing at the bar will be banned.
The news will be a boost to pubs without gardens, who risked being left out of the early summer rush.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: ‘Outdoor hospitality is permitted so I believe it would be the case that takeaway alcohol will be permitted.’
Two customers are served takeaway drinks from the Cat & Mutton pub at Broadway Market in Hackney, East London, on June 21
Despite today’s news landlords remain disappointed that they will not be open fully for Easter despite the success of the UK’s huge vaccination programme.
It will be over a full month later on May 17 before the government will even consider relaxing restrictions on indoor hospitality.
The hated – and widely derided curfew and ‘substantial meal’ rules – will not return after lockdown.
The Prime Minister declared ‘the scotch egg debate will be over’ in reference to the food regulation, which was mocked after ministers said the small snack was a meal.
But industry leaders warn that the ‘cautious approach’ may not be enough to save the trade.
The British Beer & Pub Association warned only last week how nearly 30,000 pubs could be forced to remain shut until a full reopening, with punters allowed inside venues.
This would mean around two thirds of pubs may not be able to reopen.
Emma McClarkin, Chief Executive of the British Beer & Pub Association, said: ‘We’d hoped our pubs would open – indoors and out – for Easter and alongside essential retail.
‘Instead, they are going to remain closed for far longer. This will mean they miss out on vital trade and communities will miss out on seeing each other, safely, in their local this Easter.
‘Given the cautious approach the Government has decided to take in reopening our pubs, they must now support them and, in the words of the Prime Minister himself, not pull the rug out from underneath.
‘Extensions and increases to the furlough scheme and grants are going to be necessary, as well as the VAT cut and Business Rates holiday – plus a beer duty cut.’
Earlier Tory MPs and pub industry leaders had demanded Mr Johnson move quicker to open venues before Easter.
Former Conservative Party leader, Iain Duncan Smith, said he is calling on Boris Johnson to ‘review’ the opening dates for pubs.
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He tweeted: ‘The hospitality sector is a very big employer of the poorest in society, who have suffered most in the crisis, and half of those businesses are talking about closing.
I’ve asked Boris Johnson to review again the dates for reopening up the inside of pubs and restaurants.’
The COVID Recovery Group of Tory backbenchers were already unsatisfied with details of the PM’s roadmap to recovery briefed over the weekend.
At least 40 MPs led by the CRG’s Mark Harper and Steve Baker told him to speed up the process.
MP Tim Loughton questioned why pubs were not opening earlier.
He said: ‘Good news on schools, care homes and outdoor sport but surely we can open pub gardens up in time for the Easter Bank Holiday weekend and not keep wedding couples waiting until May 17th even for a slimmed down event?’
People enjoy takeaway drinks at Leadenhall Market in the City of London back in November
Drinkers sitting in beer gardens will still have to order booze to their tables, because queuing at the bar will be banned
And Essex pub landlord Adam Brooks appeared to be stunned by the announcement.
He said: ‘I said pubs would open in April, I was wrong. I could never have imagined the destruction of an industry on this scale, from a Conservative Government.
‘Outdoor opening with our weather is not being open. It will be a scatter of the odd day taking money and others costing more.’
It came as one of the country’s biggest pub chains earlier insisted they were ready to open quicker, pointing to the secure serving methods that succeeded last year.
Marstons chief executive Ralph Findlay stressed ‘It’s not as if we haven’t done this before’.
The Bridge House Pub, in Penge, said: ‘Hallelujah! April 12 is the date! We are so excited to welcome you back to our lovely and big, open beer garden! Feel safe in our open space where you will be served at your table and enjoy a covered area for your comfort. Roll on April 12th.’
The CRG’s Mark Harper said on Sunday the progress of the vaccine meant hospitality should reopen quicker.
He said: ‘It therefore makes sense to enable pubs and restaurants to open for Easter — where they can be Covid-secure — to avoid them going to the wall and to protect jobs.
‘Once all nine priority groups have been protected by the end of April there is no justification for any domestic legal restrictions to remain.’
Marstons, which operate 1,700 pubs in the UK, said things needed to happen sooner rather than later.
CEO Ralph Findlay told Radio 4: ‘In terms of expectations I just work with the basis we’ve been closed for nine months out of the previous 12.
‘What’s really important to me is that we get some degree of positivity and a route to seeing these restrictions lifted so we can come out with some sort of reasonable timescale.
‘I don’t think I could put a date on that but I do think the case is made for getting this sector up and running and open again sooner rather than later.
‘It’s important to recognise that for many businesses and many hospitality businesses in particular operating with restrictions is very difficult.
‘It’s quite hard to make profit and economically have businesses viable with the kind of restrictions we have been operating under.
‘I would just remind you, we did open last year, it’s not as if we haven’t done this before – we opened on July 4 last year we did well.
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