A BARBER is ready to open his shop and believes barbershops should be allowed to open sooner than July 4.

Barrie France owns Troy’s barbers in Christchurch Road, Boscombe, and he believes barbering should not be in the same category as hospitality and should be allowed to open sooner than the date set out by the government.

Mr France said: “I was offered £100 to go to someone’s house to cut their hair, I am not going to do that because it is not the right thing to do.

“We can do it in a safe environment, which is what my shop is. It is all two metres apart and we have all the PPE.

“I am more worried about people getting haircuts around someone’s house or a small block with none of the procedures that I am going to do, I think it will be better in a certified place.

“I would work there on my own and it will be appointment only to limit contact.

“Every single time someone leaves I can clean the whole place for the next customer.”

After prime minster Boris Johnson’s speech on Sunday, where he outlined the plan to restart the economy, foreign secretary Dominic Raab confirmed the hospitality sector would reopen on July 4 “at the earliest”.

The reopening of the hospitality industry forms part of the third and final phase of the lockdown exit.

The first will see those who can’t work from home return to work and the second phase involves the partial reopening of school from June 1.

Mr France continued: “I can’t believe we have to open on July 4 and have been lumped in the same category as hospitality.

“The problem is blow drying but you don’t have to do that in barbering.

“I won’t open before we are allowed but I believe we should be able to.”

A spokesperson for the business, energy and industrial strategy said: “It is our ambition to reopen as many businesses that cannot practice social distancing as we can in Step Three of our strategy, including hairdressers and barbershops. Our current assumption is that this will be no earlier than 4 July, subject to the scientific advice at the time.

“We are setting up taskforces to work with these sectors to develop safe ways for them to open at the earliest point at which it is safe to do so.”