By Sheila Mckenzie-
The drama over how the the disagreement surrounding the Greater Manchester’s coronavirus status must end within days, through deal, or through the imposition of harsh restrictions from Westminster.
Greater Manchester’s leaders have battled plans to move the into Tier 3, which would see pubs and bars ordered to close as part of a package of strict measures, but Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said it was time for “decisive action”.
A meeting between ministers and local leaders about Greater Manchester’s Covid restrictions recently ended without agreement.
There had earlier been an understanding that an agreement could be reached around financial support for Greater Manchester, with the Treasury and local officials discussing the amount of cash that could be on offer, put at potentially £15m a month, she said.
Mr.Jenrick said a range of support had been offered to the region, including “more resources for local councils”, greater involvement in contact tracing and the potential use of the military to assist local authorities.
Highly placed politicians including the influential chairman of the 1922 committee, Sir Graham Brady, have backed the Greater Manchester mayor in resisting Tier 3 for the region.
Mr Burnham called for MPs to help workers and businesses hit with the harshest restrictions, as he called for an urgent debate.
Negotiations with Greater Manchester have been taking place, and a final decision is expected any time from now.
Liverpool City Region received a £44 million package as part of its Tier 3 measures. However, Greater Manchester want more extensive support – including a furlough scheme paying 80% of wages for affected workers.
Oldham’s council leader, Sean Fielding, one of the local authority chiefs in Greater Manchester, said the row was not just about money but whether being placed in the “very high” alert category would actually have an impact on the number of coronavirus cases.
Treasury sources said Chancellor Rishi Sunak would not get in the way of a deal, but said he would not cave in to Mr Burnham’s demand for a return to the 80 per cent furlough scheme for people whose workplaces are forced to close.
Mr Burnham said whether a deal can be reached is “not about the size of the cheque”.
He told Sky News: “It’s about protecting low-paid workers, people who are self-employed, supporting businesses and preventing them from collapsing. That’s what this is about.
“We’ve always said we would put people’s health first, and we will do that. But health is about more than controlling the virus – people’s mental health, I think, is now pretty low given that we’ve been under restrictions here for three months already.”
Mr Burnham will be under renewed pressure to accept a lockdown after the Guardian reported a leaked NHS document revealed Greater Manchester is set to run out of beds to treat those seriously ill with Covid-19 and that some of the region’s 12 hospitals are already full.”
Mr Burnham turned to Westminster to help break the deadlock, writing to party leaders to warn that “most places” will end up in Tier 3 at some point before a vaccine is rolled out.
He said “clear national entitlements” similar to during the first lockdown are essential to create the “sense of fairness” to ensure compliance with new restrictions.
Earlier, Wales said it will go into a “short, sharp” national lockdown from Friday until 9 November.
People will be told to stay at home and pubs, restaurants, hotels and non-essential shops must shut.
Primary schools will reopen after the half-term break, but only Years 7 and 8 in secondary schools can return at that time under new “firebreak” rules.
Gatherings indoors and outdoors with people outside one’s household will also be banned.
First Minister Mark Drakeford said the “time-limited firebreak” would be “a short, sharp, shock to turn back the clock, slow down the virus and buy us more time”
Catastrophic Consequences
The British Chambers of Commerce has already told the Prime Minister that any new lockdown restrictions must come with “truly commensurate” financial support or risk “catastrophic economic consequences”.
A further 16,982 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK were announced on Sunday and an extra 67 deaths of people who had tested positive in the past 28 days, according to Government figures, which put the total at 43,646.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has told the Commons that further discussions were planned with leaders in South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, north-east England and Teesside about restrictions in these areas.