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Boris Johnson will impose the U.K.’s tightest coronavirus restrictions on Greater Manchester on Thursday night, after talks with local leaders broke down.
he prime minister warned that lives would be at risk in the region if the government failed to act, and left open the prospect of a national lockdown if infection rates continued to spike. He is set to make a statement on further restrictions in the northern city of Sheffield and the county of South Yorkshire, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick told Sky News Wednesday, after “very successful conversations” with local leaders.
In a news conference Tuesday, Johnson said the U.K. was on a “narrow path” and he did not want to impose an England-wide lockdown “unless we absolutely have to.”
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham warned that “poverty, homelessness and hardship” would rise because ministers had not agreed to provide 65 million pounds ($84 million) -- the “bare minimum” Burnham said was needed to protect businesses.
But Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the region would receive 22 million pounds in funding, alongside extra support in line with packages for the Liverpool City Region and Lancashire, which are also in the top tier. In Parliament he accused Labour of “playing political games.” Jenrick told Sky News that Burnham had not received the news of an imposed lockdown via text message while live on a televised news conference. Instead the men spoke earlier in the day, Jenrick said.
The Labour Party will force a symbolic vote in the House of Commons on Wednesday calling on the government to deliver “a fair deal” for communities facing Tier 3 restrictions.
Complex Rules
Under the top tier of restrictions, pubs and bars not serving meals have to close, households can’t mix indoors or in most outdoors settings, and people are strongly advised not to travel in or out of the area.
The new three-tier system was brought in to simplify the complex rules around social distancing across the country. But the Greater Manchester row highlighted how far Britain’s response to the pandemic has fractured along political and geographical lines.
Cabinet minister Michael Gove struck a conciliatory note toward local officials outside of London amid the disputes.
“It has been a learning process for everyone,” Gove told the Financial Times. “It does raise a broader question, not about power grabs and clawbacks but making sure the whole devolution settlement works.”
Johnson’s virus strategy has sparked criticism from his own Conservative MPs. Graham Brady, the chair of the influential Tory backbench 1922 committee who represents part of Greater Manchester, warned in Parliament that “the lockdowns themselves cost lives as well as livelihoods.”
William Wragg, another Tory MP from the region, said: “I cannot but fear that the medicine is worse than the disease.”
Official figures released Tuesday showed a further 241 people who tested positive for coronavirus died in hospitals across the U.K., with 21,331 new cases reported. That brings total confirmed deaths nationwide to 43,967.
(BLOOMBERG)
