Tonight, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to call for a 10pm closing time at pubs, bars and restaurants across England from Thursday to help curb spiralling coronavirus rates.

The Prime Minister will use an address to the nation on Tuesday evening to outline new measures, which will also restrict the hospitality sector to table service only.

The 10pm curfew, used elsewhere in local lockdowns, will be rolled out across the country to try to prevent alcohol-fuelled breaches of social distancing rules.

Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality said, 'A hard close time is bad for business and bad for controlling the virus - we need to allow time for people to disperse over a longer period,' she said.

'Table service has been widely adopted in some parts of the sector since reopening but it is not necessary across all businesses, such as coffee shops.

'It is hard to understand how these measures are the solution to fighting the disease when Government data shows that just 5% of infections out of the home are related to hospitality.'

(sources: Mirror, Standard, image: pexels)