Burnham: We face ‘punishing’ winter
BORIS JOHNSON has imposed tough coronavirus restrictions on Greater Manchester after talks aimed at reaching an agreement ended in acrimony.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said talks collapsed after the Government refused to meet his demand for £65 million to support the livelihoods of people in the region as they face the closure of pubs, bars, bookmakers and other premises.
But Whitehall insiders accused the Labour mayor of “intransigence” and claimed his “pride” had scuppered a deal.
Amid the bitter recriminations between politicians in Westminster and Manchester, the lives of 2.8 million people will be placed under tougher curbs from Friday.
Addressing reporters in Manchester, Mr Burnham said leaders of the authorities in Greater Manchester had originally wanted £90 million – £15 million a month until the end of the financial year – to protect incomes for people forced out of work.
They reduced that sum eventually to £65 million, but ministers would only offer £60 million.
The Prime Minister only confirmed a £22
million sum as he announced the new restrictions at a Downing Street press conference, money intended to implement and enforce the new rules.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock later said the “door is open” to further discussions with local leaders regarding business support.
He told the Commons: “Of course, we do not want businesses in Greater Manchester to be disadvantaged so that offer remains on the table. Our door is open to further discussions with local leaders in the coming days about business support.”
Mr Burnham said £65 million was the “bare minimum to prevent a winter of real hardship” over a “punishing” winter. “That is what we believe we needed to prevent poverty, to prevent hardship, to prevent homelessness. Those were the figures that we had – not what we wanted – but what we needed to prevent all of those things from happening.”
The mayor accused the Government of walking away from the talks, saying: “At no point today were we offered enough to protect the poorest people in our communities through the punishing reality of the winter to come.
“Even now, I am still willing to do a deal but it cannot be on the terms that the Government offered today.”
He repeated his call for Parliament to agree a framework for future areas which face going into Tier 3 restrictions to avoid the kind of wrangling that has been going on in Greater Manchester.
“I don’t believe that we can proceed as a country on this basis through the pandemic by grinding communities down, through punishing financial negotiations,” he said.
Mr Johnson confirmed Greater Manchester would move to the “very high” alert level.