Beauty services have taken extra precautions to be Covid secure and must be allowed to re-open their doors, an MP has told the Prime Minister.
Shipley MP Philip Davies said the industry felt let down not to be included in the partial re-opening of the country on July 4 and wanted to get back to business.
He is among a group of more than 80 MPs demanding action from the Boris Johnson to ensure their businesses survive.
Mr Davies said: “These industries offer not only beauty services but services which help boost confidence after illness including permanent make up such as tattooing eyebrows on to alopecia and cancer sufferers, trimming toenails of the elderly as well as therapies including reflexology and cranial massages to provide relief from migraines. I know the excellent work these services offer across the entire district and it is time to get them back open and offer a bit of hope to the people they serve, as well as the employees and business owners.”
Mr Davies said the National Hair and Beauty Federation had been working closely with Government to draft the now published close contact services guidance and they were more than ready to re-open.
He added: “They have been watching hairdressing, pubs and restaurants, cricket and football and they feel they have been forgotten. Many of them are self-employed, have worked to establish their own businesses, are financially independent entrepreneurs who over the last four months have invested heavily in making salons Covid secure and upgraded PPE.”
The Beauty, Aesthetics and Wellbeing industry employs about 370,000 people, of which more than 90 per cent are women.
The MPs plea to the Prime Minister said: “Please enable these determined, self-reliant and hardworking entrepreneurs to go back to work to support their families and play a £28.4 billion role in getting the economy moving.”