Politicians in North unite to thwart Boris

BORIS Johnson’s Covid ‘traffic light’ scheme was in crisis last night after Northern Tories joined forces with Labour mayors to reject plans to put much of the region into lockdown.

In a fiery address, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said the city would ‘never’ accept being placed into the ‘flawed and unfair’ top tier of restrictions.

Mr Burnham, a former Labour health secretary, said local leaders were being asked to ‘gamble our residents’ jobs, homes, and businesses and a large chunk of our economy’, for a strategy that even government scientists admit might not work. His opposition torpedoed plans to place large swathes of the North West, North East and Yorkshire into the ‘very high risk’ Tier 3 of the new system.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock last night accused Mr Burnham and other local Labour leaders of ‘playing politics’ with the crisis.

A government source said it was time for the Greater Manchester Mayor to ‘take responsibility’ for helping to deal with the crisis in the region, where Covid cases are threatening to run out of control.

But, in an ominous sign for the Government, local Tory MPs also rejected calls for the region to be placed into Tier 3, which would require pubs to shut and ban overnight stays.

Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 19 Committee of backbench Tory MPs and MP for Altrincham and Sale West in Greater Manchester, said: ‘The case has not been made for Greater Manchester to move into a Tier 3 lockdown.’ Fellow Tory William Wragg, MP for Hazel Grove in Manchester, said health ministers had ‘achieved the impossible’ by uniting local politicians of all parties against the Government’s plans.

Jake Berry, former minister for the Northern Powerhouse, and MP for Rossendale and Darwen, pointed out that following last year’s election triumph, the Tories have 80 Northern MPs, adding: ‘They are the Prime Minister’s majority and, bluntly, he needs to look after us.’

Labour’s shadow foreign secretary and Wigan MP Lisa Nandy said: ‘There was total unity from Conservative and Labour Greater Manchester MPs... this morning. We will support evidence-based interventions with adequate financial support. We will not support this chaos.’

Placing large chunks of the North into Tier 3 is central to the Prime Minister’s plan to avoid a national lockdown by targeting action at the areas with the highest infection rates.

Downing Street said the PM wanted to move forward with ‘as much consensus as possible’ but confirmed ministers do have the powers to force whole regions into the top tier.

However, ministers fear that if Labour sides with Tory rebels, the Government could be defeated in a confirmatory vote on the regulations, which would be needed next month to keep them in force. There are also fears the row could undermine public confidence in the measures even if they are imposed.