By Tony O’Riley-
Boris Johnson is under fresh pressure from metro mayors to change tack and keep mask wearing compulsory on public transport in England from Monday. At a news conference this afternoon six Labour metro mayors said they would all be doing everything they could to require passengers to keep wearing masks from Monday.
Mayors including Greater Manchester’s Andy Burnham(pictured) and West Midlands’ Andy Street. have both said he will mandate for passengers to continue wearing face coverings.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has declared masks mandatory on public transport in the capital.
Andy Street, the Conservative mayor of West Midlands, also said today he would encourage mask wearing, though admitted he did not have the power to enforce this, and his statement does not go much beyond the official government advice , which says the government “expects and recommends that people wear face coverings in crowded areas such as public transport”.
Mr Burnham said masks would still be required on Greater Manchester’s Metrolink tram network as part of a condition of carriage, but made it clear he did not have the power over buses or trains but urged people to continue wearing masks as an “act of solidarity”.
He said he had been inundated with messages from vulnerable people describing 19 July as “fear day” rather than “freedom day”, and it was “not right” that they should be “forced off” public transport.
West Yorkshire’s mayor Tracy Brabin and Dan Jarvis in South Yorkshire have ordered the use of face coverings to continue in the county’s bus stations and encouraged their use on public transport.
Liverpool mayor Steve Rotherham said he was asking all transport operators to enforce mask-wearing.
“I’ll be asking all of them to do the right thing,” he said.
Wearing face masks “costs nothing” and they were a “minor inconvenience”, he added.
Meanwhile, in the North East, council leaders have called for similar powers to those of the London mayor.
North of Tyne’s mayor Jamie Driscoll said coronavirus was “still a dangerous disease” and the government should “reverse its decision”
He added: “You wouldn’t make the speed limit voluntary.”
Andy Burnham said he would mandate the wearing of masks on trams in Greater Manchester, using conditions of carriage (see 10.25am), and Jamie Driscoll said he would be doing the same on the Tyne and Wear metro.
Tracy Brabin and Dan Jarvis said they would require the wearing of masks in bus stations in West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire respectively. Otherwise all six mayors just stressed that they would encourage people to keep wearing masks, in order to protect others.