'F*****g joke' - Sheffield pub blasts coronavirus restrictions described as ‘death by 1000 cuts’

In a Facebook post, a spokesperson for The Stagg Inn in Woodhouse suggested supermarkets, rather than pubs, bars and restaurants, are “the problem”.

They wrote: “So you enter a pub wearing a mask. Sanitise your hands. Sign in to track and trace. Are taken through a one-way system to a table that is socially distanced. The table is sanitised before you sit down. An order is taken. The server sanitises their hands, then gets a sterilised glass and pours a drink. The drink is brought to you and the mask may be taken off.

“When finished the glass is collected, hands sanitised or gloves removed and washed. The masks is replaced. Payment is taken and the terminal is sanitised before and after use. The one-way system is followed out of the venue. Go and look at a supermarket and tell me again how hospitality is the problem. F*****g joke.”

On Thursday the Government will confirm what tier Sheffield will be placed in when the national lockdown finishes on 2 December.

It is possible the city could go into Tier 3, which would mean pubs, bars and restaurants have to remain closed.

In Tier 2, only those hospitality businesses serving substantial meals would be allowed to open, with different households banned from mixing indoors.

A brewery boss from Sheffield described the rules as “death by a thousand cuts” for the industry.

It comes as more than 50 pub and brewing bosses wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson to complain pubs are being “scapegoated” and could be lost forever.