A lesson from the Brexit playbook leads to Manchester’s missing £60m

It was an afternoon of bewilderment, outcry and chaos. No one seemed to know for certain how much money the Prime Minister was giving Greater Manchester. So reporters tried to ask the Prime Minister himself.

Unfortunately, however, he didn’t seem to know either.

It began like this. The Government was about to place Greater Manchester in Tier 3, which would mean damaging restrictions on local businesses. To support those businesses and their staff, Andy Burnham, the local mayor, had demanded what he called “a bare minimum” of £65 million. The Government was offering £60 million. Not a huge gap.

When Mr Burnham said £60 million wasn’t enough, however, the Government ended the talks. On the streets of Manchester, Mr Burnham made an impassioned statement, accusing the Government of “playing poker” with local people’s livelihoods. Towards the end, a man passed him his phone, and pointed at a message. For a good five seconds, Mr Burnham stared at the screen in disbelief.

“It’s brutal,” he said at length. “They should not be doing this… Twenty-two million pounds…”

Twenty-two million? That was all the Government was now giving? Barely more than a third of the sum it had offered mere hours earlier? There had to be some misunderstanding.

Fortunately, a news conference was about to start at No 10. Surely Boris Johnson could clear things up. He began with a statement, in which he confirmed Greater Manchester would receive £22 million “to help local authorities implement and enforce restrictions”. So this £22 million was actually a separate sum.

As for money to support businesses, he said, “agreement hasn’t been reached”. The Government had made “a generous and extensive offer”, but Mr Burnham “unfortunately didn’t accept this”. He uttered these words with great ruefulness and headshaking, an air of “nothing more we could do”. The sort of manner a vet uses when gently informing a tearful little girl that they had no option but to put down her hamster.

So did that mean Manchester businesses would get nothing at all? Reporters tried to find out. They asked repeatedly about the vanishing £60 million.

Yet Mr Johnson’s replies were strangely vague. He told reporters – again in his rueful vet voice – that the Government couldn’t offer Mr Burnham a deal that was “out of kilter” with previous deals for Lancashire and Merseyside.

But, as one reporter pointed out, Lancashire had received £42 million, and Merseyside £44 million – and both areas were home to rather fewer people than Greater Manchester.

“Our door is open,” murmured Mr Johnson gnomically, “to continue that particular conversation.”

Ah. So the talks weren’t dead after all? The Government, it seemed, had simply done with Greater Manchester what it had done with the EU: pretend to end talks, as a means of forcing its opponent to back down.

Which is all very well. Except that in this particular instance, its opponent happens to be the second largest city in its own country.

Twenty-two million? That was all the Government was now giving? There had to be some misunderstanding