Non-socially distanced mass events ARE safe: Minister says there were no Covid ...

There were no coronavirus outbreaks at non-socially distanced mass events piloted in England, a Government minister confirmed today.

It has raised hopes that festivals, nightclubs and sporting matches can reopen at full capacity after July 19 – more than 16 months after the initial lockdown last March. 

Culture minister Nigel Huddleston said the trial events, including the FA Cup final at Wembley and the Brit Awards, had not caused any clusters of infections.  

He told MPs in the House of Commons: 'Although we are not yet in a position to publish the full report, I can assure the House that post-event data closely monitored have not shown any evidence of the events causing outbreaks.'  

Tens of thousands of Britons were given their first slice of freedom in more than a year at during the events in April and May. Attendees did not have to socially distance from strangers and all that was required to get in was a recent negative test. 

Nine events were piloted in total, including the FA Cup final in front of 21,000 fans at Wembley, a live audience of 4,000 at the Brit awards, a nightclub in Liverpool which hosted 3,000, as well as three 10km outdoor runs for 6,000 athletes and spectators. 

The trial was designed to see if Covid outbreaks could be avoided at mass events when the country was originally scheduled to unlock on June 21.

Backbench Tories and Labour MPs today suggested No10 had concealed the 'fantastically positive' data because it did not jibe with its decision to delay lockdown. 

Data published by local public health officials in Liverpool - where four events were piloted - showed just 0.08 per cent of the more than 13,000 attendees tested positive.

Former Tory minister Mark Harper, chairman of the Covid Recovery Group (CRG), told MPs: 'I'm a little confused. Normally when the Government doesn't publish something it's normally because it's bad news and it's trying to hide it away.

'I've got a very strong suspicion this set of data is fantastically positive. It must be ready for publication, because it must have been prepared for last week when step 4 was due to be announced so it must be ready to go.

'My fear is it demonstrated the opposite of the decision the Prime Minister announced last week. 

'It would have demonstrated that we could have safely opened on June 21. That's the real reason why it hasn't been published, so why doesn't he publish it today and put our minds at rest?'

Labour also raised concerns about the lack of publicly-available data from the mass events and asked if the Government was keeping it 'secret'.

Shadow culture secretary Jo Stevens said: 'I'm afraid there was nothing really in the minister's response just now to explain the failure to publish the results. What's the secret?

'Why won't the Government tell the public, tell the industry and tell us what the results are, because all of those who have spent time and money organising and hosting test events – and those relying on this programme – would like to see the results.'

Ms Stevens questioned if Downing Street had 'blocked' the release of the data last week ahead of the announcement that June 21 was being pushed back a month.  

Responding to the criticisms, Mr Huddleston said it was a 'conspiracy theory' to suggest that the Government purposefully concealed the data.

He added: 'We have said already... that if there were major concerns we would have made sure that information was in the public arena that would have been the responsible thing to do.