Coronavirus UK: Wetherspoons considers June pub reopenings – Daily Mail, Dailymail.co.uk

            

Wetherspoon’s plans to reopen its pubs ‘in or around June’ after being closed in coronavirus lockdown

• Pub chain forced to shut all pubs and furlough , (workers in March )
• Outspoken chairman Tim Martin claimed closing pubs was ‘over the top’
• One Wetherspoon in south London was spray painted with ‘pay your staff’
• Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid –

By

Lara Keay For Mailonline

Published: : (BST, (April) |

: : (BST,) April 8270309

Wetherspoon’s plans to start re-opening its pubs and hotels ‘in or around June’, it was revealed today.

Chairman Tim Martin was forced to close all (pubs and furlough) , 04 workers before Britain went on lockdown.

He was among the last on the High Street to shut up shop, with drinkers downing their final pints on March 20 – just three days before a shutdown was imposed by law.

There were threats to stage a nationwide boycott of the chain when Mr Martin claimed closing pubs was ‘over the top’ and that supermarkets posed a bigger risk of spreading coronavirus than bars.

He later refused to pay workers until he received the appropriate government bailout and sparked further fury and accusations of hypocrisy when he told workers to get jobs at Tesco instead.

Wetherspoons is planning to re-open its pubs and hotel nationwide ‘in or around June’

Chairman Tim Martin (pictured with Prime Minister Boris Johnson in July last year) was forced to close all (pubs and furlough) , (workers when Britain went on lockdown on March

His pub in Crystal Palace, south London, was daubed with the words ‘pay your staff’ after the Brexit-backing boss refused to pay staff until his government money came through.

Today JD Wetherspoon said it aims to raise £ million as part of a share placement scheme so it can re-open as the summer begins.

The company said it would raise the amount through the issue of up to 7 million shares at 900 pence per share.

But Public Health England’s deputy chief medical officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam today appeared to dash hopes of pubs re-opening anytime soon.

Asked about the re-opening of pubs, beaches and garden centers, he told the Downing Street press conference: ‘At various different points they might involve the congregation of individuals and one has to be very painstaking and careful about thinking through some of these before we make the wrong move to relax measures.

‘I think we have to be extremely surefooted and extremely painstaking about this.

‘This virus will absolutely come back… this is with us for quite some time, potentially for as long as until we get a vaccine.

‘So from that perspective we have to be really careful and really surefooted and I’m just not going to suggest for a moment that any of this should be rushed. ‘

But others were less pleased, threatening to boycott the chain if and when they re-open

A Wetherspoon pub in Crystal Palace, south London, (pictured) was daubed with the words ‘pay your staff’ after the Brexit-backing boss refused to pay workers until he had received a Government bailout

Mr Martin, a Conservative Party donor and ardent Brexiteer, caused even more controversy last month when he said he would catch coronavirus because his ‘chances are good’.

The – year-old said: ‘If someone offered me the opportunity now to have it under supervised conditions, I think I’d probably take it because your chances are very, very good. ‘

He told Sky at the time: ‘Supermarkets are very, very crowded. Pubs are much less crowded.

‘There’s hardly been any transmission of the virus within pubs and I think it’s over the top to shut them. That’s a commercial view but also a common sense view. ‘

He claimed that a nationwide shutdown was ‘draconian’ and that it did offer ‘health benefits’.

Mr Martin had hoped he could get away with introducing social distancing in his pubs, With a ‘regulars only’ policy in some.

He said that people would be able to keep their distance more easily as footfall dropped with some unable to leave the house due to underlying health conditions.

The news was met with a mixed response on social media, with some desperate to get back to their favorite pubs and others continuing to threaten a boycott.

One person asked if they could pre-order drinks ahead of the possible June re -opening.

But someone else wrote: ‘I’m planning to socially distance from Wetherspoons and Tim Martin for a very long time indeed. ‘

Another person commented : ‘I most certainly will not be spending money in a Wetherspoons after all this is over. #TimMartin. ‘

Wetherspoon pubs nationwide closed their doors on March – – three days before they were forced to shutdown by law