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The Government’s curfew on the pub and restaurant trade is “nuts” and only likely to encourage people to socialise more in their homes and risk spreading the virus further, says JD Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin.

The pub chain chairman, who has just announced 450 job losses at his airport outlets, has called the 10pm closure order “utterly stupid” and told Business Live: “Curfews are counterproductive - pubs are working very hard to implement sensible social distancing rules. As º£½ÇÊÓƵ Hospitality, the pub trade organisation, has said, there are very low infection rates in pubs.”

Mr Martin said the restrictions for pubs and restaurants, announced in the House of Commons by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, would only encourage drinkers to socialise elsewhere.

He told Business Live: “A curfew will mean that supervised socialising in pubs will end at 10pm and people are likely to socialise in their homes and elsewhere, where there is no supervision.”

Mr Martin, who lives near Exeter in Devon, then quoted Ian Ward, leader of Birmingham City Council, who said data shows the infection rate has risen mainly due to social interactions “particularly private household gatherings” and with shops and hospitality venues adhering to strict measures to ensure they are Covid-free it is “much easier to pass on the virus in someone’s house”.

Earlier in the day Mr Martin had told Sky News that 800 of the chain’s 861 pubs had seen no infections, and 40 had only one apiece.

He called the Government’s curfew “mad” and “nuts” and said his pubs, and those of competitors, had done a good job keeping staff and customers safe.

In August, when Plymouth experienced an outbreak of coronavirus infections caused by 11 teenagers testing positive after returning from a holiday on the Greek island of Zante, JD Wetherspoon issued a statement saying its anti-transmission measures are so robust its pubs won’t have to shut even if an infected person had been inside.