Hero plumber who backed Boris Johnson’s lockdown plan says we must ‘use common sense and get back to work’
PLUMBER Ryan Price has told lockdown-weary Brits: “If you use your common sense, it’s safe to go back to work.”
The no-nonsense 31-year-old made headlines yesterday after appearing on Channel 4 News backing Boris Johnson’s lockdown plan, insisting it was not “hard to understand”.
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And he added: “I’m not sure what you want? A full handbook to tell you what to do?”
Ryan, from Ashford in Surrey and owner of a boiler and bathroom fitting firm, last night told The Sun: “We need to start getting back to work using a bit of common sense.
“You have to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. At the moment, there is no vaccine, so what do we do?
“We’ve got to carry on going to work. You have to put a bit of perspective on it. If you shut down the economy, that’s going to kill people in itself.
“It’s only a very small minority of people who are young, fit and healthy that become hospitalised with this virus.
“So why are we locking up the whole country when we can release the under-45s that have no health issues so we can go back to some sort of normality?”
He added: “Surely, we need to protect to the maximum the elderly and those with underlying health issues. For the rest, in the main it’s not that much of a threat.”
Why are we locking up the whole country when we can release the under-45s that have no health issues so we can go back to some sort of normality?
Ryan Price
Ryan completed a plumbing course at college before working for British Gas for eight years.
He started Surrey Heating Specialists six years ago and launched a second firm, Response Plumbing, with a partner a year ago.
The companies have six employees — two of whom are full-time and have been furloughed.
Ryan, a Tory voter, added: “I want to get my workers back as soon as it picks up. We normally fit around 15 boilers a month but now we’re getting zero. Yet I’m still doing emergency work.
“I did furlough myself for a couple of weeks but then thought, ‘I’m going to go back to work’.
“We’re still doing home visits. Some people are really nervous, others don’t care. You have to respect each person’s views.
“It’s a good thing Boris has allowed people to start going back to work. Businesses have to be ready with social distancing so they can go back to making money.
“If Boris had said, ‘Stay locked down’, there would have been a hysterical reaction to that, too.
“Anything Boris does, some people complain. He has done a lot of good. Look at business. We’ve had the best support for business in the whole world.
“My company took out a Bounce Back Loan for £50,000.
“We do not necessarily need it now but we took it for cash flow as a safety net.
“My business will be affected until this goes away. People aren’t going to have new bathrooms while this is going on until they find a vaccine or a treatment.
“There are a lot of people really, really struggling. But there are a lot of people on furlough, sitting at home on 80 per cent of their wages.
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“You only need it to pay your mortgage and food. If that takes 80 per cent of your money, you’ve over-stretched yourself.”
Ryan admitted after his Channel 4 appearance: “All these champagne socialists are slating me online.
“Just because I’m a plumber and talk a certain way, everyone is looking down on me. But I’m not an idiot, I came from nothing and now earn six figures.”
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