The £5m falling out: Boris Johnson imposed Tier 3 lockdown on Manchester after Andy Burnham held out for £65m support package... instead of the £60m the Prime Minister offered
A furious blame game erupted last night after talks between ministers and leaders in Manchester fell apart – over the sum of £5million.
In an angry press conference, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham accused Boris Johnson of ‘grinding’ northern communities down.
It came after the PM’s failure to stump up more money to support the livelihoods of people hit by new coronavirus restrictions.
The region – where 2.8 million live – will be placed into the ‘very high’ Tier Three alert level on Friday.
A furious blame game erupted last night after talks between Andy Burnham and Boris Johnson fell apart – over the sum of £5million. In an angry press conference, the Greater Manchester mayor accused the Prime Minister of ‘grinding’ northern communities down
Mr Johnson offered him £60million but said it would be ‘unfair’ to go further than deals offered to other North West regions. Mr Burnham claimed the higher figure was the ‘bare minimum to prevent a winter of real hardship’
Under the restrictions, which are already in place in the Liverpool region, pubs and bars will be closed, unless they are serving substantial meals, for a 28-day period along with betting shops, casinos, bingo halls, gaming centres and soft play areas.
The measures could lead to the closure of an estimated 1,800 pubs and 140 wine bars as well as 277 betting shops and 12 casinos.
Mr Burnham revealed that the Government had offered £60million in assistance to businesses forced to close. But he rejected this because Greater Manchester councils had been holding out for at least £65million – down from their original demand of £90million.
In his press conference, the mayor accused Mr Johnson of ‘walking away’ rather than finding the extra £5million. But one Whitehall source said: ‘Andy Burnham’s pride got in the way of a deal.’
Another claimed Mr Burnham had told the PM it was ‘important to him that he got more than Lancashire and Merseyside’, which are already in Tier Three. The source said officials had agreed a business support package of £55million. But when the PM rang Mr Burnham to agree it, the mayor demanded £65million.
Mr Johnson offered him £60million but said it would be ‘unfair’ to go further than deals offered to other North West regions. Mr Burnham claimed the higher figure was the ‘bare minimum to prevent a winter of real hardship’.
He said yesterday: ‘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.’
He added: ‘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.’
The daily number of coronavirus cases, counted by the date specimens were taken, has eased in key cities over recent days
Greater Manchester will get £22million to help fund local contact tracing. Labour council leaders were not informed about the timing of the new restrictions. Mr Burnham only learned during his press conference when it was reported on social media.
It came amid mounting anger from businesses and Tory MPs in the Manchester area. Chris Green, MP for Bolton West, said: ‘Bolton has been through a far tougher lockdown than Tier Three and it didn’t work.
‘The Government believes that three weeks of closing pubs and soft play centres will make a dramatic difference. It hasn’t and it won’t.’