Face masks could be mandatory in English shops, hints Boris Johnson

The government is considering making masks mandatory in English shops, Boris Johnson has hinted, as senior scientists urged ministers to be seen in face coverings more often to set a good example.

“As we get the virus down, in the way that we have, and we stamp out local outbreaks in the way that we are, I do think we need to be stricter in insisting that people wear face coverings in confined places,” Johnson said during a Q&A session with voters on social media. “We’re looking at ways of making sure that people really do have face coverings, in shops, for example.”

Johnson said new rules might be needed to overcome a lack of tradition around mask use. “It’s very interesting, because in places like China or Taiwan, the far east, they don’t actually have mandatory face coverings, it’s just part of the way they do things. Clearly we don’t have that culture here in the UK, and we have to think about how we make it happen and how we make it work.”

On Friday, face coverings became mandatory in shops in Scotland. The Welsh government has recommended their use but it is not compulsory. Masks are mandatory on public transport in England, and official guidance says people should also wear them in shops and other enclosed spaces, but Johnson and his senior team have rarely been photographed wearing one.

The prime minister was seen publicly in a mask for the first time on Friday, donning a bright blue one in his Uxbridge constituency.

Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, was pictured without a mask while serving a meal to customers in a restaurant following his mini-budget this week, and he has also been photographed bumping elbows with people as a greeting.

Other politicians have been less wary of face coverings. Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, prompted a boom in sales of a brand of tartan mask after wearing one for an event where she outlined new Scottish rules for combating coronavirus.

Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, was pictured this week wearing a full protective visor during a visit to an engineering firm in Essex. The Liberal Democrat leadership candidates Ed Davey and Layla Moran have also been seen in masks.

Prof Anthony Costello, a former director at the World Health Organization, criticised Sunak for not wearing a face covering while serving meals to promote the “Eat out to help out” scheme. He said it was “a terrible mistake” and urged ministers to set an example and wear face coverings in enclosed spaces.

Costello told a briefing of the Independent Sage group that recent research from Hong Kong had highlighted theincreased coronavirus risk in indoor spaces, with most clusters of infections coming from “mask-off” settings such as bars, restaurants and gyms. “Our message is: wear masks indoors, wear masks in public places, and I think ministers should be setting a good example, and they are not doing that right now, particularly in England,” he said.

The Independent Sage committee was set up by Sir David King, a former chief scientific adviser, amid concerns about the transparency of the government’s own Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage).

Speaking at the same briefing, Prof Susan Michie, director of the Centre for Behaviour Change at UCL, said fresh concerns around possible airborne transmission of the virus, as well as evidence of the effectiveness of masks in Germany, had “tipped the balance in favour of wearing masks in indoor, enclosed settings”.

She said: “We are not a society that is used to wearing face masks, so we need to get every single lever that we can to make this happen. We’ve obviously had it made compulsory on transport, but that is not enough. We need a good mass education, persuasion and training campaign, because people do need to wear the right kinds of masks in the right way in order to make them maximally effective.”

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Matt Hancock, the health secretary, has been pictured in a mask, as has the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden. The culture minister, Caroline Dinenage, said on Friday that she wore masks designed and made by her son, a fashion student.

A Downing Street spokesman, when asked if he could name any more ministers to have publicly worn a mask, said: “I don’t spend my time with individual ministers.”

On Sunak’s elbow-bump greetings, the spokesman said: “The social distancing guidelines are clear, we have set out what they are, and all the ministerial team, including the prime minister, abide by them when they’re out and about.”