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Boris Johnson announces face coverings are to be mandatory in shops from 24 July with £100 fines for non-compliance
7.56am BST
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has welcomed government’s U-turn on making face coverings mandatory in shops in England.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said the evidence from experts was the measure could make a “massive difference” in helping to tackle coronavirus.
He said:
The advice is, where it’s not possible to keep your social distance, particularly if you’re in confined spaces indoors, shops, supermarkets and the like, gyms is another good example, this small measure can make a massive difference along with other measures.
Clearly, if it’s not practical to do so, think of a pub, a bar, or restaurant, in those places, it shouldn’t be mandatory.
I don’t think you’ll come to many examples of the police having to enforce the rules.
The problem is not the issue of enforcement, the problem is the mixed messages and the confused communications.
“This small thing with other measures can make a big difference.”
Mayor of London @SadiqKhan welcomes the news that face coverings in shops in England will become mandatory, but questions why it doesn’t start from today.#KayBurleyhttps://t.co/p7Eg4m2hH6 pic.twitter.com/pS22DQgiDm
7.53am BST
The environment secretary, George Eustice, has defended the delay to ordering the mandatory use of face coverings in shops in England.
He told Sky News:
The evidence, the understanding, has been evolving. So the World Health Organisation changed their guidance back in June and following that the Government changed its guidance and we recommended that people wear face coverings in enclosed spaces when they’re out and about.
We then sharpened that and made it compulsory for public transport in the middle of June and what we’ve really got here is, as we loosen the lockdown and allow more venues to open, we need to consider the mix of measures we have in place to limit the transmission and control the virus.
We’re not for instance mandating the wearing of masks in pubs and restaurants, because obviously people have got to eat.
We’ve been evolving the measures we’ve had as we come out of lockdown and we’ve been strengthening the guidance progressively on masks making it mandatory first on public transport and now we’re going to that next step to make it mandatory in retail environments.
7.47am BST
Welcome to our UK coronavirus live blog when we’ll try to keep up with the government’s changing stance on two big issues: face coverings and Huawei.
Last night Boris Johnson announced that masks will be mandatory in shops from the end of next week following months of opposition to the idea and days of mixed messages from ministers.
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