The London-based Israeli restaurateur Yotam Ottolenghi said his business was on its “knees” as a result of new social distancing restrictions introduced into the capital last week. 

“We just don’t have customers coming through the door,”  he said. 

Mr Ottolenghi, whose six retaurants include Nopi in Soho, was speaking on Radio 4's Today programme before the Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced new support for business on Thursday. 

With the national furlough scheme for staff ending this month, additional support had been available only to businesses forced to close in areas placed in the tier-3 category where Covid infections are “very high”. 

But Mr Ottolenghi said restrictions in tier-2 areas where people from different households are no longer permitted to mix indoors had hit business. 

“We are on our knees now,” he said. 

A year ago his restaurants were full and the week before London was placed into tier-2 occupancy was at 50 per cent. 

“Now we are at 10 to 20 per cent. This is just not a viable place for a restaurant to be,” he said. 

“I am sick of worry for the jobs of my staff and the staff of other restaurants and hospitality businesses across the land that are stuck in this cursed tier-2 category which deprives us of oxygen but doesn’t give  us any support. It’s ludicrous.” 

But he said if businesses could get two-thirds of staff wages covered – as they are in tier-3 – it would be “a very blessed start and I think we might be able to work around it.”