Nation divided on Covid restrictions

ANORTH-SOUTH divide was yesterday at risk of widening in Britain as MPs and local community leaders clashed over coronavirus restrictions.

Conservatives Scott Mann (Cornwall North) and Marcus Fysh (Yeovil) were among the signatories to a letter sent to Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, who is holding out against the city being moved into the highest level of Covid-19 lockdown.

Mr Mann and Mr Fysh joined 18 other south of England MPs urging Mr Burnham to get a grip on the virus and accept the tough Tier Three restrictions to prevent the need for a national lockdown.

Mr Burnham, who condemned the letter from what he called “we’re all right Jack” Conservatives, was last night said to have engaged in constructive talks with Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s chief strategic adviser, Sir Edward Lister.

But he called on Westminster’s political leaders to help in “breaking the impasse” over the coronavirus restrictions by holding a Commons vote to secure greater support for the hardest-hit areas.

Mr Burnham has described efforts to move Manchester into the highest level of restrictions as unfair and accused the Prime Minister of having engaged in an “exaggeration” of the severity of Covid-19 in the region.

But a call from Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer for a two to three-week circuit breaker that would put the whole country under virtual lockdown has been condemned in the South West, which has some of the lowest rates of coronavirus in the country.

CORONAVIRUS cases are continuing to fall in Exeter city centre around the university, the new Covid-19 cluster maps for Devon and Cornwall show.

The three worst-hit areas where the rise in cases were linked to the university have a total of 222 fewer confirmed cases in the rolling seven-day figure than last week.

There are very few clusters with numbers in double figures across the rest of Devon and Cornwall.

Plymouth’s biggest cluster is in Mutley, where there have been 15 new confirmed coronavirus tests in the last seven days.

In Torbay, the most worrying trend is in Torquay’s Hele and Upton area, where there has been a fast-growing cluster with 12 new cases in the past week – taking it from only two to 14 in seven days.

The other growing cluster is in Chelston, Cockington and Livermead, which has five more new cases, taking the seven-day total to nine.

In Cornwall, the picture is still relatively good. Although 27 people have tested positive, there are large parts of the county where there are no clusters at all and only one area just making it into double figures: Lostwithiel and Penwithick, which seen has six new confirmed cases, taking the seven-day total to ten – the biggest cluster in the county.