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G-A-Y vows to continue legal challenge against 10pm curfew after court refuses first proposal

Fighting on: G-A-Y plans to press forward with its opposition to curfew  (Alamy Stock Photo)
Fighting on: G-A-Y plans to press forward with its opposition to curfew (Alamy Stock Photo)

After a review by the courts, a legal challenge against the 10pm curfew by Soho LGBTQ+ bar G-A-Y has been refused – but the club has vowed to continue its fight against the government.

Owner Jeremy Joseph mounted his opposition in early October, saying the restriction made "absolutely no sense", adding that it made a “scapegoat” of the night time economy.

At the time Mr Joseph said: “It does the opposite of protecting people by pushing them onto the street...They are going from being safe inside venues with staggered closing times to unsafe on overcrowded streets and overloaded public transport.”

Now, after a judicial review denied the club's claim, G-A-Y – which operates in Manchester as well as London – has few options left. One hope is that a oral hearing to renew the challenge may be accepted.

A statement from the club reads: "The court have refused us permission for the case to go ahead. This decision was made on the papers submitted by G-A-Y and the Government. The good news is that there is still the chance for our lawyers to argue before a judge why the case should be allowed to go ahead and for a judge to make a different decision. This can happen so we have decided not to give up.

"Since we made our last announcement, the tier system has been introduced with more protective measures introduced and venues across the country, including G-A-Y Manchester, have been forced to close. Knowing that even when these venues can reopen they will continue to make losses because of the curfew is heartbreaking, especially when we can see no good reason for it to protect customers and the public. All it is doing is putting hospitality out of business, and encouraging people to continue their evening after 10pm at private residences without all of the Covid-secure measures venues like ours have in place.

The statement continues: "We still haven’t seen evidence that comes close to justifying the curfew. If the Government had something convincing we would have hoped to have seen it by now. It doesn’t.

"This will not be easy, but we are continuing because G-A-Y believes the 10pm curfew is crippling hospitality and is not helping stop the transmission of the virus. So round one may be lost but the battle is not over."

G-A-Y's challenge had been supported by the Night Time Industries Association, with the NTIA's CEO Michael Kill calling the court's decision disappointing: "At present we are still not satisfied that we have received anything that even remotely substantiates the supposed benefits of the 10pm curfew."