Andy Burnham has revealed that he will ‘use whatever means he can’ to challenge the government if they impose stricter lockdown restrictions in Greater Manchester.
It comes following the leaked government plans which revealed pubs and restaurants in hotspots, such as the North and Greater Manchester, will be closed from Monday.
The plans have received a lot of backlash from leader’s in the North, and from Tory MPs who are considering rebelling against the PM.
Many leaders in the North have explained that the first they heard about the government’s new three tier system was on the front pages of Thursday’s newspapers.
Mr Burnham said he would challenge any measures the government imposes in the North West while speaking on BBC Question Time.
He said: “I will not accept the government just imposing restrictions and these decisions upon us, briefing them to newspapers late at night. They need to treat the people of the North of England with more respect.”
Fiona Bruce asked: “When you say you won’t accept it, what are you talking about? Civil disobedience?”
He responded: “I won’t support it. Earlier in the summer they asked for my support and I did provide it, but if they come with restrictions without full support for the people and the businesses affected, I won’t support it. But actually more than that, I will challenge it.
“I will use whatever means I can to challenge it to get support for people because otherwise they are going to suffer real hardship this winter – we are going to see businesses failing.
“I even threatened possible legal action over the A-levels in the summer because I wasn’t prepared to accept that either, because that disadvantaged young people in the North of England, we need change here.
“I’ve offered to work with them time and time again but I think the mood in the North of England this week, speaking to local leaders, business leaders, is that the government has lost the dressing room and they have to work very hard now to get it back.”
Mr Burnham’s anger is felt amongst most other Northern leaders, and they are planning a formal alliance in opposition to any attempt of government restrictions without funding from the Treasury.
Dan Jarvis, Mayor of Sheffield, tweeted: “Recklessly irresponsible to brief the papers but not leaders in the North who’ll somehow have to make this work. Get a grip @BorisJohnson.”
Andy Burnham reiterated his point on Twitter saying: “If the Government closes businesses across the North without providing proper compensation and a local furlough scheme for staff, then, yes, I will challenge them in any way I can.”
Leader of Leeds city council, Judith Blake said: “We’re working with both hands tied behind our backs, trying to do the best thing locally, and then you get the government just leaking information to the press. It’s so depressing. I’m sure it’s a tactic too: put it out there, soften people up, see what the reaction is.”
The reports of a new three-tier system come following rising infection rates. MPs received a briefing from the government’s Covid taskforce on Thursday claiming that bars, pubs and restaurants accounted for 41% of cases in two or more under-30s who had visited the venue a week before testing positive.
However, The Telegraph explains that the published data explains otherwise. The NHS Test and Trace has recorded that the location at which infected people met close contacts who were later found positive was overwhelmingly in the home.
75.3% of people contacted by tracers came into contact with an infected person in their home or someone else’s, according to PHE figures released last Friday.
It adds that ‘leisure or community’ which includes pubs, restaurants, places of worship, celebrations, entertainment, organised trips and community activities, were responsible for just 5% of reported close contact – adding that the vast majority of outbreaks happen in schools, workplaces and care homes.
Blake added that she was not convinced hospitality is to blame, saying: “Up to this point our evidence is pointing to the higher risk of infection being in households and confined indoor spaces.”
Mr Burnham is demanding local authorities can see the restrictions and the financial support before they are announced, adding that he is losing patience with the government. He explained: “There is no way at all I will sign off on the closure of any business without a local furlough scheme.”
The Guardian reports that 19,000 businesses in West Yorkshire will require financial support if Leeds and Bradford are put into the highest level of the three-tier system, putting 28,000 jobs on the line.
Northern cities are forming an alliance to ensure that the ‘city centres aren’t decimated’. Blake added: “It’s difficult to say at this precise moment what we will do but there is real concern and real anger coming from the business community in terms of what is expected of them.”
The new coronavirus restrictions are reportedly going to impact the majority of Northern England, from Barrow in Cumbria to Merseyside, Greater Manchester, much of Lancashire and Yorkshire and most of the North East, as well as Nottinghamshire in the Midlands.
Steve Rotheram, the mayor of the Liverpool city region, said: “Significant restrictions like those being proposed must also come with significant financial support for local businesses that will be affected, local councils who are leading our public health efforts and for NHS test and trace.”
Tory MP Simon Fell, who is part of the rebellion on the nationwide 10pm curfew – which he explains is having the opposite effect of what was intended – said: “I haven’t seen the science for that.
“Frankly my concerns is that it’s spilling people out into the streets and into house parties and it’s those uncontrolled environments where the infections are spreading. Looking at the data, we are not seeing cases in Covid-secure venues.”
