Brits sneak back to the pub as crafty landlords serve takeaway pints to thirsty punters in lockdown loophole

THIRSTY Brits are back on the booze after crafty pub owners exposed a lockdown loophole to serve punters.

Bars across the UK are taking advantage of an easing in the rules which allows them to serve drinks in takeaway glasses and bottles.

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The move, and sizzling temperatures, led to thousands of Brits doing what they love most - enjoying a cheeky drink with their mates.

Pictures posted on social media show people downing their first drinks from their locals since 47,000 pubs and bars were closed on March 20.

Other pictures featured couples sharing drinks in the sunshine and drinkers supping from plastic pub glasses in back gardens.

And queues were seen forming outside one bar in Bournemouth selling takeaway booze.

One photo showed a punter showing off his pint outside the Old King's Head in Shoreditch, London as temperatures topped 82F.

Fred Johnson posted a photo with the words: "Local pub doing takeaway. First drink out since lockdown."

While Fraser Coleman wrote: "Stuck in the garden with a takeaway beer from the Duke of Wellington."

The pictures emerged as ministers raised the prospect that pub restrictions could be eased in July allowing some to reopen for summer.

George Eustice, the environment secretary, said the government was in discussions with the industry to see what measures may be possible to allow them to reopen.

However, any opening will be limited at first to those larger venues with plenty of outside space.

“We are already working with the hospitality and pub sector to identify what social distancing measures they might be able to put in place to make that work,” revealed Mr Eustice.

“As the prime minister has outlined, we intend that the hospitality sector, including pubs, would be able to tentatively start gradually opening, hopefully during the month of July — subject to the epidemiology supporting such a move.”

On Monday pub operators called on the government to halve the two-metre social distancing rule ahead of pub re-openings.

Simon Emeny, the chief executive of Fuller’s, said the rules went “above and beyond” World Heath Organisation guidelines which advise people “maintain at least one-metre distance”.

“I think it’s really important that (rules) are relaxed by the time pubs reopen,” he said, adding that a one-metre rule would allow four times as many customers.

And Jonathan Neame, chief executive of Shepherd Neame, told The Financial Times keeping two metres apart would be “profoundly challenging” to the industry.