The Guardian reports..
Hospitality bosses have lost their legal battle to force the UK government to bring forward the reopening date for pubs and restaurants indoors.
A high court judge dismissed the attempt to bring forward indoor reopenings as “academic” because the hearing would be unlikely to take place before 17 May, when pubs and restaurants in England could welcome customers inside.
The legal case against the government the was brought by Sacha Lord, the night-time economy adviser for Greater Manchester and a co-founder of Parklife festival, and Hugh Osmond, the founder of Punch Taverns and a former boss at Pizza Express.
Pubs and restaurants in England were allowed to welcome customers again from 12 April after a national lockdown but only in outdoor areas. The government has set out a timetable aiming to allow hospitality customers indoors in England from 17 May, although restrictions will apply. Other nations of the UK have varying timetables for reopening.
At the high court last month, Lord and Osmond argued there was no justification or scientific basis for indoor hospitality to be kept closed for five weeks after non-essential retailers in England were allowed to serve customers indoors from 12 April.
They said about 60% of hospitality venues did not have outdoor space.
Responding to the ruling by Mr Justice Julian Knowles, Osmond said: “This case is not ‘academic’ for an industry that is losing £200m every day it remains closed, for the over 3 million people who work in our industry, or for the tens of thousands of businesses, suppliers, landlord
