The owner of a Blackburn restaurant has said it would be ‘heartbreaking to go bankrupt’ as concern grows around a local lockdown being implemented in the town.

Speaking on GMB today (May 14), David Wilson said that if he had to keep his restaurant, Calypso Caribbean Restaurant closed, he may end up closed for good.

Yesterday, Matt Hancock and Boris Johnson said that they were not ruling out local lockdowns in areas where the Indian variant was seeing rates jump, such as in Blackburn and Bolton.

David said: “It’s obviously not working – by targeting the pubs and hospitality industry it’s not working.

“Now it should be about choice, if people want to go and have the vaccine, it’s there for them, the same as wearing masks.

“10 years ago, I opened this business and my 10th anniversary I was closed, no people in.

“All I want to do is carry on my business. To go bankrupt at this stage would be horrible, it would be heartbreaking.”

The infection rate in Blackburn has nearly doubled in the past week from 54.1, with 81 people testing positive, to 107.6 after 161 people have tested positive.

Mr Johnson said the Government was “anxious” about the variant and “there is a range of things we could do, we are ruling nothing out”.

Despite the spread of the Indian variant, Mr Johnson said there was “nothing that dissuades me” from easing England’s lockdown on Monday or the further steps towards normality on June 21.

But he added “there may be things we have to do locally and we will not hesitate to do them if that is the advice we get”.

Local lockdowns are only expected to be used if evidence suggests they are necessary to contain or suppress a variant which escapes the vaccine.