Is Manchester going into Tier Three even if leaders object?
GREATER Manchester will be placed under the toughest local lockdown restrictions by Monday whether local leaders agree or not, sources said last night.
Boris Johnson accused Labour mayors o in the region of putting lives at risk b by refusing to agree to the curbs.
The Prime Minister used a Downing S Street press conference to pile pressure on Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, who has said he will ‘never’ agree to being put into the highest tier of restrictions without compensation.
Mr Johnson earlier acknowledged it was ‘ ‘crucial’ to win the support of local leaders t to persuade people to follow the new rules. But Greater Manchester will be forced into the most stringent category by Monday unless Mr Burnham accepts the move before then. ‘If he won’t take responsibility, then someone will have to,’ a Whitehall source said. Lancashire yesterday became the second region after Merseyside to be placed in ‘very high risk’ Tier Three.No 10 trumpeted the ‘deal’ with Lancashire , which will place 1.2million people in tough measures, as evidence some local leaders were acting ‘responsibly’.
Mr Johnson last night said surging cases in Greater Manchester meant intensive care beds in hospitals there were just a fortnight away from reaching occupancy levels last seen in the spring. He said he was ready to intervene to save lives in the region, home to 2.8 million people.
Talks on putting the North East into Tier Three were postponed yesterday following a ‘slight’ easing of the virus in the region.
Large parts of Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire are also close to being placed in the top tier. The PM said ministers were giving the plan their ‘best shot’ but refused to rule out a national lockdown if it fails.
He added: ‘Each day that passes before action is taken means more people will go to hospital, more people will end up in intensive care and tragically more people will die. Of course, if agreement cannot be reached I will need to intervene in order to protect Manchester’s hospitals and save the lives of Manchester’s residents. But our efforts would be so much more effective if we work together.’
Heaping pressure on Mr Burnham, Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said it was ‘important to go quite fast’. But Mr Burnham shared a link on Twitter reporting Sir Patrick’s view that Tier Three rules would not be enough to bring infections down. ‘ So that’s the Chief Scientific Adviser joining the Chief Medical Officer and his two deputies in casting doubt on whether Tier Three will work,’ he wrote. ‘Yet I’m the one putting health at risk?’
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer backed Mr Burnham last night and repeated his call for a two to three-week ‘circuit break’ covering the whole of England.
The extension of Tier 3 to Lancashire was marred by accusations of ‘bullying’ and ‘blackmail’ from Labour council leaders. And there was fury in the Liverpool city region – the first placed into Tier Three – that its gyms had to shut whereas those in Lancashire can remain open.
Gyms around Merseyside have defied the closure order imposed on Wednesday. Liverpool’s Labour Mayor Joe Anderson demanded ‘immediate clarification’ on the discrepancy, which Merseyside officials said showed the Government’s system of tiers had descended into a ‘shambles’.
Last night Mr Burnham and the leaders of all Greater Manchester’s ten councils issued a statement saying: ‘We are not convinced that closing hospitality venues is the only way to protect hospitals and we want to look at other measures, such as reinstating shielding arrangements.’
It came a day after he demanded more financial support for workers in closeddown sectors, he claiming the North was ‘fed up of being pushed around’.
Nigel Evans, Tory MP for the Ribble Valley in Lancashire, accused Mr Burnham of being intransigent, adding: ‘He was elected in Greater Manchester. He does not speak for the rest of the North-West. Our figures are going up and something desperately needed to be done to save lives.’
Local politicians in Lancashire had spent a week negotiating a financial package in exchange for agreeing to place the county in Tier Three. Geoff Driver, Tory leader of Lancashire County Council, said: ‘Urgent action has to be taken now to ensure the county is not overwhelmed by the virus.’