Greater Manchester Covid restrictions delay 'puts lives at risk'
- Published
Further delays to a decision on Greater Manchester's Covid restrictions will "put people's lives at risk", the communities secretary has said.
Robert Jenrick said he hoped he could reach an agreement with the region's MPs, and its mayor Andy Burnham, "in the next day or two".
Local leaders want better financial support before they agree to being moved up to the top tier of rules.
Talks will continue later after a weekend of discussions.
Mr Jenrick indicated that "tens of millions" of pounds given to the Liverpool City Region and Lancashire - the two parts of England already in tier three - could be on offer for Greater Manchester.
He told BBC Breakfast the Greater Manchester talks had gone on "too long" as coronavirus case numbers remain "seriously high".
"Delay I'm afraid will only make the situation worse, will only put people's lives at risk, and will only make the economic fallout for the city worse in the long term," he added.
It comes as the Welsh Government is due to announce whether it will introduce a two-week national lockdown.
The cabinet will meet this morning to make a final decision over a so-called circuit-breaker, after considering advice from experts, with First Minister Mark Drakeford expected to make an announcement shortly after midday.
A further 16,982 people tested positive for the virus in the UK as of Sunday, figures from the Department of Health showed, with a further 67 deaths occurring within 28 days of a positive test.
The dispute over which tier of restrictions Greater Manchester should be in intensified on Friday after Boris Johnson said that he might "need to intervene" if local leaders did not accept a move to tier three curbs.
But Mr Burnham wants the government to re-introduce the 80% furlough scheme used previously in the pandemic to support the low paid affected by tier three closures.
He said businesses that will be closed under tier three - pubs, bookies and gyms - "are places where people are on low wages".
Mr Burnham said he had a "constructive call" with the PM's team on Sunday.
BBC deputy political editor Vicki Young said Treasury sources insisted there would not be a more generous offer on wages but pointed to other financial support packages agreed with Liverpool and Lancashire.
On Sunday, Liverpool City Region's metro mayor Steve Rotherham said his area would receive an additional £44m and a similar package worth £42m was given to local leaders in Lancashire last week.
BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said a package of around £75m for Greater Manchester would be roughly equivalent to the packages agreed for Liverpool City Region and Lancashire, based on population size.
In a letter to the PM and other party leaders released before he had spoken to Mr Johnson's chief strategic adviser Sir Edward Lister on Sunday, Mr Burnham said Parliament should hold an urgent debate to end the deadlock.
He said the prospect of tier three restrictions on hospitality and other areas "is not just a Greater Manchester issue".
He wrote: "Establishing clear national entitlements of the kind we had during the first lockdown will create a sense of fairness which in turn would help build public support for, and compliance with, any new restrictions."
The Greater Manchester mayor has received some support from within Tory ranks, including from Sir Graham Brady, the influential chairman of Conservative backbenchers' group the 1922 committee.
Sir Graham, MP for Altrincham and Sale West in Greater Manchester, said the region's Labour and Tory MPs were "pretty united" in resisting tier three restrictions, adding that positive tests were "flattening".
But five other Tory MPs in Greater Manchester have written to Mr Burnham to oppose Labour's support of a circuit-breaker in favour of local measures.
One of the letter's signatories, James Daly, who has also resisted Greater Manchester being put into tier three, said a circuit-breaker would be "disastrous" for the economy.
Mr Daly, who is MP for Bury North, told Radio 4's Today programme that while all of Greater Manchester's MPs were "united" in wanting to do the best for their constituents, they needed better communication from Mr Burnham who had not "reached out" to them ahead of talks with the government.
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Tory MPs representing areas on the lowest tier of England's Covid alert system had called on Mr Burnham to accept a move to the highest tier, rather than allow restrictions through a circuit-breaker across England.
Meanwhile, the NHS in Manchester said it was monitoring the situation "very very closely" after the Guardian reported that it was running out of beds and that 82% of critical care beds were taken on Friday.
But a spokesperson added: "It's not unusual for 80-85% of ICU beds to be in use at this time of year and our hospitals work together if there are particular pressures in any one area, to ensure the best care for patients who need the high level of support ICU provides, both for Covid and for other reasons."
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2020-10-19 07:23:00Z
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