DOWNING Street has dismissed Dominic Raab’s comment that customers at fast-food chains like McDonald’s will need to be served at tables, after it caused chaos and confusion in the hospitality sector.

The Foreign Secretary said it was his understanding that “you need to be able to order from the tables” but later in the day No 10 said the rule only applies to premises selling alcohol.

This prompted a backlash from owners of quick-serve restaurants and cafes who said the rule could ruin their businesses.

Atkinsons Coffee Roasters, which owns several cafes in Lancashire, has said the new table service rule shows the Government “does not understand or even acknowledge the cafe sector”.

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Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Caffe Nero said they did not consider cafes to be included in the table service rule, and Costa Coffee could not confirm whether they considered it applicable to them.

Trade association UK Hospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said policy changes “on a daily basis” and inconsistencies between devolved governments are leading to confusion for hospitality bosses, adding that they “deserve better”.

She said: “Our understanding is that quick-service restaurants will be exempt from the new rules, but there is certainly a degree of confusion.

“Businesses have been given next to no time to implement rules that have been introduced with no consultation from the industry and we are rushing around to try to interpret them. These restrictions are going to have a huge impact.”

She added: “These businesses have already lagged behind as office workers and tourists have stayed away and they are going to take another battering.”

Later on Wednesday, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman told journalists: “The rule regarding table service applies to licensed premises.”

Pressed if a burger could be ordered at the counter at McDonald’s and picked up before sitting down to eat, the spokesman said: “Correct. You would have to sit down in order to eat it in order for that to follow the rules.”

He added that there are a “small number of exemptions” to the rule such as cinemas which serve alcohol.

However, publicans have also complained that restricting their premises to table service only while allowing takeaways without tables to serve customers at tills is a “difficult decision for landlords to swallow”.

Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA), said many landlords feel it is “no longer viable to stay open without further support” because of the new rule.

McClarkin said: “Restricting pubs to table service only will have a severe impact on their revenue at a time when many of them were already struggling to breakeven.

“Our pubs have already invested lots of time and money to ensure they are safe – including Perspex screens and enhanced cleaning regimes, among others, to make them safe.

“With takeaway restaurants still able to serve their customers at the counter, the decision by the Government is a particularly difficult one for landlords to swallow.”