Manchester lockdown – Boris forces city into Tier 3 on Friday but cash offer slashed after Burnham deal collapses
BORIS Johnson will force Manchester into a Tier 3 lockdown on Friday, but the cash offer will be slashed after a deal with Andy Burnham collapsed today.
The Mayor of the city accused Boris Johnson of walking away from multi-million pound talks and warned of a “winter of real hardship” for residents.
Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest news & updates
The Manchester Mayor and Westminster Government have been locked in a furious fight for days over extra new rules for the area – and how much cash they will get.
After walking away from the £60million financial package, Boris said it will now get the £22million originally offered – described as “brutal” by the Mayor.
He stressed that they were still in talks about further bailouts for business which may raise the total further – but the numbers aren’t yet known.
Manchester Council leaders earlier demanded £75m in extra cash help as they ramped up the rhetoric against No10’s efforts to force them into lockdown.
Downing Street was willing to offer Manchester £60 million – but Mr Burnham wouldn’t budge below £65 million.
This afternoon at a fiery press conference Mr Burnham blasted the PM for failing to seal a deal and asked: “Are they playing poker with people’s lives? Is that what they’re about?”
He said £15million a month was needed as the “bare minimum to prevent a winter of real hardship” for the city and accused ministers of “bullying” them into a settlement which wasn’t enough.
“That is what we believe we needed to prevent poverty, to prevent hardship, to prevent homelessness,” he stressed today.
Mr Burnham accused the Government of doing local lockdowns “on the cheap” and said it showed the national spirit in the fight against the virus had been “completely lost”.
He said gone was talk of “whatever it takes” from the Government to help the country and now it had come down to “you’ll get what we’ll give you.”
We are asking a lot of the public – we need to take them with us, not crush their spirit.
Andy Burnham
It comes as:
- Jonathan Van Tam said a national lockdown “at the moment” wouldn’t be right for parts of the country with lower levels of infection
- But he warned “we may have to push down on the peddle a little harder to get it under control” in future
- Bars and pubs in Manchester will have to shut unless they serve food, and casinos, betting shops and soft play areas will also close
- The lockdown will come despite cases falling in parts of the city
- Talks over entering the top bracket are also ongoing with South Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and West Yorkshire – but nothing more is imminent
- One leader in the North East told Boris that he could “sod off” if he wanted to put Hartlepool in Tier 3
- Mr Burnham warned that Tier 3 would affect most of the country over the winter to come
- There have been a further 21,330 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK
And he warned against imposing more restrictions on the city without their consent, adding: “We are asking a lot of the public – we need to take them with us, not crush their spirit.”
He demanded Westminster come up with a financial package and plans for every area that would have to go into Tier three.
Despite failing in his bid, Mr Burnham pleaded with residents in Greater Manchester to follow the tougher measures.
Speaking directly to the 2.8 million people in the region, he promised to “carry on fighting for you, we will carry on putting your health first”.
But Government sources said the Mayor’s “pride” had got in the way of an agreement.
One Whitehall insider told The Sun: “We offered a very comprehensive package that was in line with what was offered in Liverpool and Lancashire.
“It was the mayor’s pride that got in the way of a deal.
“It was the Mayor’s personal inflexibility that got in the way.”
Manchester and the North West saw 92 Covid deaths today, more than double any other region in the UK.
The next highest toll was in the North East, which saw 41 deaths recorded, while Yorkshire and Humber reported 21 deaths.
In contrast deaths in London, the south east and the east of England – swathes of which are in the same ‘high’ tier as Manchester – recorded deaths in the single figures.
Across the UK 241 deaths were recorded – the highest since June 5.
LOCKDOWN LOOMS
Manchester will have 28 days of tough restrictions with Tier 3, with pubs and bars closing unless they serve food.
And other shops including casinos, betting shops and soft play areas will be shut too.
The Government is required to review measures every four weeks and they could be extended for longer.
The PM and Manchester Mayor held a last-minute phone call this lunchtime to try and break the deadlock and seal a deal – but talks ended with no agreement.
WINTER IS COMING
Earlier Mr Burnham finally admitted he would accept the higher lockdown – despite case numbers falling in parts of the city.
The Mayor said he would ask people to obey the law if he was ordered into the next set of restrictions – and warned tier three rules are coming for everyone this winter.
This is despite the latest figures showing Manchester, Trafford and Stockport showing a decline in their weekly figures – down 17 per cent, six per cent and six per cent for the week ending October 15.
Mr Burnham claimed he was fighting for a financial deal not just for Manchester but for the whole country, as “I would predict that all areas will end up in tier 3 throughout the winter”.
He has also argued that a new shielding system should be used instead for the mots vulnerable – before going for more additional restrictions for the whole area.
Other parts of the area – with a total of 2.8million people – have seen rising cases, however.
Rochdale has seen a sharp 17 per cent rise, followed by Wigan with 13 per cent in the last week.
Manchester’s overall rate is down from 583 cases per 100,000 at the peak, to around 353 yesterday.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer claimed the collapse in talks was a “Government failure”, despite Mr Burnham refusing to move over £5million.
Sir Keir said: “Labour recognise the need for stricter public health restrictions. However, that must be accompanied by extra financial support.
“Labour will continue to support Andy Burnham in the fight for people’s jobs, lives and livelihoods.”
Meanwhile, local MPs – including Tories were furious with the discussions with the Government.
William Wragg failed to hide his anger on Twitter.
He said: “The sense of failure is overwhelming. I shall avoid political comment until I have heard @MattHancock’s statement in @HouseofCommons this evening.
“Leadership is required from everybody. Trust is placed in us all and that is the privilege of public office.”
Manchester Central Labour MP Lucy Powell stood firm saying Manchester still wanted at least £65 million.
She wrote on Twitter: “Just for some context, the money the Treasury recently clawed back from GM in business cash grants from March/April lockdown stands at £88 million.
“So Government TOOK BACK £88m in Covid business support but now won’t give less than this to support GM businesses now.”
She claimed the Government “clearly doesn’t really care about supporting businesses and protecting jobs AND protecting health because they are prepared to cause huge breakdown over £5m (a tiny fraction of what they’ve spent elsewhere)”.
“This is politics at its worst, not public health.”
Labour’s Andrew Gwynne said today: “Why does this government hate Greater Manchester?” accusing ministers of offering less than they did to their own areas.
But Rishi Sunak hit back, saying MPs need to act in a “constructive spirit”.
He vowed: “Greater Manchester is being treated exactly the same as every part of our UK. These are national support schemes.”
Up to 1,809 pubs in Greater Manchester could be forced to close following the Government’s decision to impose Tier 3 restrictions on the area, according to new data from property adviser Altus Group.
But Boris is gearing up for further fights with other parts of the country where they are set to oppose going into tier three too.
The leader of Hartlepool Borough Council had a forthright message for anyone suggesting the town should be placed in a higher lockdown.
Shane Moore tweeted on Monday evening: “Apparently it was announced in the House of Commons earlier that there were talks happening in relation to #Hartlepool & wider #TeesValley going into Tier 3.
“This is untrue.
“No talks with us since update on Friday & if anyone suggests it to me this week they’ll be told to sod off.”
Yesterday Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned swathes of South and West Yorkshire — including Sheffield and Leeds — could be placed in Tier 3 this week.
Chunks of the North East and Nottinghamshire were put on a similar timetable.
It means that than 21million Brits are set to fall under tougher lockdown rules within weeks.
A third of the country faces the highest Tier 3 restrictions or “circuit-breaker” closures.
That is on top of 2.7million already in Tier 3 in Merseyside and Lancashire, along with 3.4million people in Scotland and 1.9million in Northern Ireland.
Most read in Politics
Despite pressure to introduce an England circuit breaker, Downing Street insisted it would persist with a localised approach.
A spokesman for Boris Johnson said: “We keep all of our measures under review but the PM has made very clear that he doesn’t want a return to something like a national lockdown and believes our three-tiered approach is the right way forward.”
