As of September 24, pubs and restaurants in England and Wales have been required to close their doors at 10pm in an attempt to curb the surge in coronavirus cases. However, many customers and businesses have pointed to major flaws in the policy. Jeremy Joseph, the owner of Soho’s G-A-Y nightclub, told LBC that he is now seeking a judicial review to overturn the curfew.
He told host Nick Ferrari: “What we’re trying to do is get facts.
“Over the last six months, since lockdown started, we’ve been put under certain rules and regulations and things that we have to do to keep our customers safe.
“A lot we agree with, some we don’t.
“But we’re being given no facts or figures on why these are being put into place.”
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Mr Joseph continued: “The 10pm curfew, to us, does not work. It’s killing off the hospitality industry. And not only that, there’s no proof.
“We are asked to make everybody safe when they come into the venue. We are doing table service, I’ve got screens in between every table and masks when you go into the venue.
“We are doing everything to make our venues safe, but then we’re being asked to kick everybody out at the same time, at an earlier time, onto the streets and making them unsafe.
“It’s completely unsafe. It makes absolutely no sense.”
Mr Joseph said that different venues should be allowed to close at different times to suit their licensing.
He warned that it was more dangerous for drunk customers to all be spilling out onto the street at the same time.
The club owner confirmed that his lawyers had sent a letter to Health Secretary Matt Hancock to ask him to come back with evidence.
He insisted the challenge would be dropped if statistics supporting the curfew were provided.
However, Mr Joseph said they would “do whatever it takes”, including taking the proceedings to judicial review.
