People can leave the pub at 10pm and then go to a friend’s house and continue drinking – as long as they are a group of six, Michael Gove earlier confirmed.

Boris Johnson today announced a 10pm curfew for pubs and restaurants across England – with the restrictions expected to be followed by Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Despite warning that socialising has led to a worrying increase in coronavirus cases and could see restrictions in place for the next six months, the Prime Minister has decided to keep the ‘rule of six’ in place and not ban social gatherings indoors.

It means people can continue to socialise after pubs close at someone else’s house – so long as there are no more than six in a group. 

Michael Gove earlier told the BBC: ‘It is the case that with the rule of six you can have six people in a social gathering, yes, but the steps that we are taking here reflect some of the evidence that has been gathered from those parts of the country where these restrictions have already been put in place in order to ensure that we restrict social mixing.’ 

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The rule only applies to parts of England that are not in local lockdowns that already restrict 13.7 million people from different households meeting at all. 

Mr Johnson has also told people to work from home where possible in a drastic U-turn from his drive last month to get people back in the office.

There are local lockdowns currently in place in Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester and Newcastle where no one is allowed to meet people that are not part of their households in private homes or gardens. 

Sadiq Khan has pushed for similar bans to be enforced in London while Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said yesterday that ‘we have to break unnecessary links between households because that is the way in which the virus is transmitted’.

Chief Executive of UK Hospitality Kate Nicholls said the curfew is ‘another crushing blow’ and said she does not think it will be effective in curbing the rise in cases because the ‘Government data shows that just 5% of infections out of the home are related to hospitality.’

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