Britain will reopen thousands of high street shops, department stores and shopping centres next month, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday, May 25, 2020.
Johnson also set out a timetable for businesses as part of moves to ease the coronavirus lockdown.
He told a news conference that, from June 1, outdoor markets and care showrooms could be reopened as soon as they are able to meet the COVID-19 secure guidelines.
All other non-essential retail could reopen from June 15 if the government’s tests are met.
“There are careful but deliberate steps on the road to rebuilding our country,’’ Johnson said.
Meanwhile, Dominic Cummings, a top adviser to Johnson, has defended his decision to leave London amid lockdown travel restrictions, saying he acted “reasonably.”
“I did not ask the prime minister about the decision, he was ill himself and he had huge problems to deal with,” Cummings told reporters.
Cummings travelled 430 kilometres from London to his parents’ home in County Durham at the end of March. Both Cummings and his wife were ill at the time and suspected they had the coronavirus.
He and his wife were worried there was “nobody in London (they) could reasonably ask to look after (their) child and expose themselves to COVID-19.”
Calls have mounted for Cummings to resign over the decision, but Cummings said he had “not considered” that.
