JUST one in five pubs could be open this Christmas due to crippling Covid restrictions.
And the curbs in the run-up to the festive season may mean nearly 10,000 will shut for good, with as many as 290,000 jobs lost.
Landlords begged the PM for help, calling the new rules “lockdown by the back door”.
Britain’s top scientist yesterday admitted there was “no hard evidence” the 10pm pubs curfew worked.
Boozers and restaurants across England said the controversial rule had helped wreck their businesses.
But in a bombshell confession, Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said no modelling had been done to prove if it had any impact on Covid.
And a study elsewhere has also revealed closing pubs and restaurants has had virtually zero effect on the spread of the virus.
Yet just 19,000 of Britain’s 47,000 pubs were able to open last weekend due to Covid restrictions, including the tier rules in England.
SHUT FOR GOOD
And half of those still serving fear they will close by Christmas because business is so bad.
As many as 9,375 in England alone, 25 per cent, could shut for good by the spring if things do not change, the British Beer and Pub Association says.
It would mean up to 290,000 sector jobs could be lost, with a £7billion hit to the economy.
Up and down the UK, landlords told how tough trade has been — with one taking just £20 on Sunday.
Model Jodie Kidd, who co-owns The Half Moon pub in Kirdford, West Sussex, urged the Government to step in with more support.
Jodie, 42, told Trending In The News: “Otherwise, we will lose a lot more than a quarter of the nation’s pubs.”
She added: “Since the lockdowns began our pub has lost over half a million pounds.
“It will take years for us to get that money back.
“At the moment we are having to beg, borrow and ask massive favours to keep going.”
The curfew was designed to stop booze-fuelled revellers mixing indoors together, Sir Patrick said.
But he told MPs: “There is no real hard evidence on curfew times.
HATED CURFEW
“What you can see across Europe and indeed in this country is that keeping people together longer in an indoor environment, where there’s also alcohol, is likely to increase risk.
“And therefore that was a policy decision around trying to reduce the potential of interactions.
“It’s not something you can model with any degree of accuracy and say a particular time will give you a particular result.”
The hated curfew was brought in by ministers in September under the old system of lockdown tiers.
It forced pubs and restaurants to close at 10pm.
Facing a storm of protest, the PM scrapped it this month.
Labour MP Toby Perkins, former chairman of the parliamentary group on pubs, said: “This is proof of what we’ve known for weeks but the Government were too frightened to admit — that their policies which have decimated our hospitality industry were introduced without an evidence base to support them.”
Meanwhile, a leaked report from the Netherlands economy ministry also shows shutting hospitality did almost nothing to bring down the crucial R-rate.
Instead, scientists concluded keeping people out of boozers has just shifted the transmission of the virus into homes.
They warned that may even be making the situation worse because people are not subject to strict social distancing measures at home.
Pub bosses said the current tier curbs make it unviable to open, so the rules need to change — or the PM needs to give more support.
They called it a “lockdown by the back door”.
Kate Hayden, 45, and partner Paul Warrinder, 44, run the Snow Goose in Farnborough, Hants, where takings were down by 55 per cent over the weekend.
Kate said: “I feel like the industry Paul and I have worked in for a combined 60 years, is falling down around me.
“We have been absolutely devastated and dumbfounded at being Tier 2 as we are effectively being asked to continue if we can but the restrictions inevitably make it impossible to do so and without much financial support.”
The couple also run The Extraordinary Hare in West Hendred, near Wantage, Oxfordshire, where on Sunday they took just £20.
Neil Staples, 58, and wife Lisa, 49, opened the Crown Inn at Gayton, Norfolk, for just five days before deciding it was losing them money staying open.
Neil said: “There were simply not enough people coming in to warrant staying open. It was business suicide and more cost effective to shut.”
BBPA boss Emma McClarkin, said: “It’s simple. Either the Government reduces these extreme restrictions, so pubs have a fighting chance of survival, or they recognise the damage they are doing to our pubs and provide them with the proper level of grants they need.”
