Top showbiz agent backs Mail campaign

BRITAIN’S top showbiz agent joined the Daily Mail’s campaign to put an end to the disastrous ping-demic last night.

Jonathan Shalit OBE, chairman of InterTalent Rights Group, said the rules are ‘particularly galling’ to the entertainment industry which is seeing shows cancelled at an alarming rate.

The 5 -year-old is the latest signatory to this paper’s letter calling on Boris Johnson to put an end to the rules which state even double jabbed workers must stay at home and isolate if pinged by the NHS app. The talent manager said: ‘The ping-demic is particularly galling to the entertainment and performance industries as we are so people reliant. Health and safety rules mean if not enough people turn up to work, venues cannot open and actors cannot act.’

It comes after Andrew Lloyd Webber blamed the Government’s ‘illogical and damaging’ guidelines for the cancellation of some performances of his musical Cinderella last week. Other plays forced to postpone or cancel runs due to cast and crew being pinged include Hairspray, The Prince of Egypt and Sir Kenneth Branagh’s production of The Browning Version.

Britain’s oldest brewer, Shepherd Neame, has also backed the Mail’s call to end the damaging isolation rules. The company runs more than 300 pubs throughout London and the South East but it has struggled to keep the doors of its premises open as workers keep being pinged by the NHS app.