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A Mansfield-based taxi driver has claimed strict Covid-19 rules meant he was working up to 16 hours a day to make ends meet. The driver, Naz, said that he has lost 95 percent of his business due to the lockdown. He said: “The high streets are really suffering big time.

“Day to day we tend to see the shops boarding up.

“Now with this Covid, we’ve seen the businesses one by one now shutting down.

“It’s just unbelievable. Even as taxi drivers, it has a major effect on us.

“Since lockdown, people aren’t going to work, we’re just stuck on a taxi rank, waiting.

“To be honest, it was that bad for us to survive.

“A few of us were working up to 16 hours a day just to make ends meet.

“We have no choice because at the end of the day we’ve still got mortgages to pay, bills to pay.

“It’s okay the Government saying that we can have a mortgage holiday, a mortgage break or have a break on your bills but at the end of the day we’ve still got to pay that.

“They’ve managed to pull the plug and say, ‘nobody go out’. They’ve destroyed my business. I’ve virtually lost 95 percent of my business.

“If there is another lockdown I don’t know what we’re going to do.”

Naz was speaking during the Blue Collar Conservatism Conference 2020, a virtual event designed to listen to the views of grassroots voters in new Conservative seats across the UK.

Founded by Esther McVey in association with the Daily Express, the conference comes after a political revolution spearheaded by Boris Johnson saw the Conservative Party win an unprecedented number of seats from former Labour heartlands in the 2019 general election. 

All week Express journalists will travel up and down the country with Ms McVey’s team to hear what real people think of the key issues impacting their lives.

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They will be joined by Cabinet Ministers Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, Home Secretary Priti Patel, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and Chancellor Rishi Sunak, as well as “red wall” Conservative MPs. 

It comes as bans on loud music, singing and dancing have been imposed as part of new emergency coronavirus rules, as well as hefty fines for knowingly ignoring orders to self-isolate.

Wide-ranging laws and the list of punishments were revealed in legal documents and came into force on Monday.

Now, by law, people in England must self-isolate if they test positive for coronavirus, or are contacted by the test and trace service, or face fines starting from £1,000, rising to £10,000 for repeat offenders.

Those who test positive must do so for 10 days after displaying symptoms, or from their test date if they are asymptomatic, while members of their household must isolate for 14 days.

Meanwhile, it emerged that separate laws, which also came into force on Monday, ban pubs, bars, restaurants and cafes from playing music which exceeds 85 decibels, although live performances are exempt.

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