George Eustice gives update on pubs - and beer gardens will be first

"In the case of pubs and restaurants it will begin with beer gardens and outdoor areas."

Environment Secretary George Eustice confirmed that pubs with beer gardens are likely to be the first venues in the hospitality sector to reopen.

Mr Eustice told Sky News: “The sectors that are going to have the greatest challenge getting back to work, which we recognise, and I’m sure the Chancellor recognises this too – the hospitality sector and some of those other ticketed venues, in particular cinemas and in particular theatres, restaurants and pubs, will also face a challenge getting back in to operation.

“And that is why we won’t be loosening the restrictions on them until at least July and even then it is likely that in the case of pubs and restaurants it will begin with beer gardens and outdoor areas only.”

Rules across Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland will be different from England.

On Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s aide Dominic Cummings, Mr Eustice added: “I think Dominic Cummings gave a very detailed account of what he did and the judgments he made and why he did what he did on Monday in that very long press conference.

“He acknowledged at the time, look there will be people who will look at the decisions he took and say well was that quite the right thing to do? He might have done differently.

“He acknowledged that and I think really though we just need to move on and I don’t think what happened and what he did and what he explained should affect at all people’s approach to this.”

Mr Eustice has said people cannot be furloughed “indefinitely” and ways need to be found to get people safely back to work.

Asked on Sky News whether there will be continued support for the self-employed, Mr Eustice said: “Well obviously it is nearly a month ago now that we said we wanted to reopen those bits of the economy that couldn’t work from home, so we’ve been encouraging the construction industry for instance to get back to work.

“A lot of those self-employed professions such as plumbers, electricians and so on, those people are able to return to work now, albeit observing social distancing, but we need to try to start to get bits of the economy back to work.

“Now I don’t know what Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, will say later in terms of self-employed and the furlough scheme for them, but I think there is a general overarching message here that we’ve had a very generous furlough scheme in place to help people through these extraordinary times and to ensure that businesses’ overheads could be covered.”