Mike Skinner responds to delay of lockdown easing after releasing ‘21st of June’ song

The Streets star said the government had ‘f***ed’ its Covid strategy

In 2021, nothing is certain. The Streets star Mike Skinner learned that the hard way after he released his track about lockdown easing – “Who’s Got The Bag (June 21st)” – in March, only for the government to delay the lifting of restrictions to 19 July this week.

The Streets had also announced five nights of gigs and parties at The Mill in Birmingham.

With those shows thrown into doubt, Skinner has posted a short clip on Twitter referring to the single.

In the video, Skinner is heard singing the track’s refrain of “21st of June” in a telephone box, before leaving and adding: “Then they f***ed that too!”

The UK government’s hopes of scrapping the final social restrictions imposed on the public to tackle the pandemic have been put on hold as the Delta variant of the disease continues to drive up infections.

At Monday’s (14 June) press conference, Boris Johnson confirmed that the lifting of remaining coronavirus restrictions in England will be delayed by four weeks, to 19 July.

It was “sensible to wait just a little longer” and potentially until 19 July, he said, adding he was “confident” no further extensions of lockdown measures will be needed.

As it stood, Johnson’s roadmap was originally scheduled to end on 21 June when the last precautionary measures were due to be lifted.

But the threat posed by the new strain – thought to be 60 per cent more transmissible than the Alpha variant – raised doubts about the wisdom of pressing ahead.