MPs DEMAND PRIME MINISTER AND CHANCELLOR MEET WITH WEDDING TASKFORCE BEFORE SECTOR COLLAPSES

Representatives of the £14.7bn wedding industry have met with a group of over 30 cross-party MPs who have agreed to lobby both the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer to discuss urgent support for the sector.

The UK Weddings Taskforce, the official body designated to negotiate with Government on behalf of the industry, has been locked in meetings with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, along with HMRC and Public Health England (PHE), subsequently submitting a safe, workable and commercially sensible proposal for the reopening of the sector. There is a strong feeling in Whitehall that the PM needs to personally turn his attention to the matter.

The calls come after the Prime Minister announced in his roadmap that live performances and sporting events could resume from 17th May with up to 1000 attendees indoors or 4000 outdoors, at the same point that wedding capacities increase from 15 to a maximum of 30 attendees.

Sarah Haywood, Spokesperson for the UK Weddings Taskforce, commented “We have been very clear in our discussions with both BEIS and No.10 that anything less than 50 guests at a wedding is not commercially viable. Whilst Monday’s announcement was good news for some, particularly couples with weddings booked on or after 21st June 2021, many of the 60,000 businesses employing 400,000 people in our sector are now facing the prospect of four long months with zero income, no financial support from the Government and the real threat of mass redundancies. The pipeline of work in this sector is enormous. It simply does not make sense for us to be wiped out.”