Boris: Time To Spend For Our Country

PM urges ‘shop with confidence’ as high streets ‘reawaken’ today

- Sam Lister and David Pilditch

Boris Johnson wants high street tills to ring the changes as Britain begins its bounce back.

The PM said: “I think people should shop, and shop with confidence.”

And as around 7,000 local parades and centres reopen in England this morning, the Prime Minister reassured shoppers that things are only going to get better.

During a visit to Westfield shopping centre in London yesterday, Mr Johnson said he was very optimistic about the shops opening, but stressed “the most important thing is public safety and the health of our country”.

He said it was difficult to predict numbers, but urged the public returning to the shops “to observe the rules on social distancing and do it safely.”

“I am very optimistic about the opening up,” he said.

“I’ve been talking to the staff here in juice bars, shoe shops, M&S, everywhere, and they are very excited. They’ve done a huge amount of work. They are not sure quite what they are going to get tomorrow, will they get a huge wave of customers, will it be a trickle, we don’t know.

“But I think people should shop and shop with confidence.

“But they should of course observe the rules on social distancing and do it safely as well.”

He said he hoped to see a “gradual” build-up in the number of shoppers taking advantage of the looser restrictions.

Mr Johnson said that “probably” fewer than one-in-a-thousand people were now infected with coronavirus.