Manchester lockdown: Boris Johnson announces just £22m support package for city to go into Tier 3
Manchester leaders asked for £90m additional support for business to avoid thrusting people into poverty in ‘punishing’ winter
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Your support makes all the difference.Boris Johnson has sparked fury in Greater Manchester after announcing the city is being offered a support package worth just £22 million to go into tier 3 coronavirus restrictions at midnight on Friday.
An offer of a further £60m in financial support for business in the city put forward by the government earlier in the day has been taken off the table.
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner accused the prime minister of being personally responsible for driving people in the city into “desitution and poverty”.
And Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said that the government was “playing poker” with people’s lives, as pubs, bars and many other businesses such as casinos and betting shops are forced to close .
Mr Johnson told a Downing Street press conference that he was ready to “consider” further support for Manchester businesses, but dodged questions about the scale of any eventual package.
“We want to do more, but for the sake of fairness, the deal has to be in line with deals we have done with Lancashire and Merseyside,” he said, in comments which suggest that any business package eventually negotiated will be less than the £60m offered earlier today
Mr Burnham said that he and leaders of the area’s 10 councils had drawn up a carefully-costed £90m package to see companies and workers through a “punishing” winter.
Local leaders reduced their request to a “bare minimum” £65m before ministers pulled the plug on talks, he said.
He responded with anger when shown the £22m figure in a text message while conducting a press conference in Manchester.
“It’s brutal, to be honest," said Mr Burnham.
“This is no way to run a country in a national crisis.It’s not right, they should not be doing this.”
And Ms Rayner said: "£8 per person in Greater Manchester. An absolute disgrace, I am disgusted. Meanwhile, consultants are getting paid £7,000 per day for test & trace.
“Boris Johnson you will be personally responsible for driving people in my constituency and across Greater Manchester into destitution and poverty.”
Downing Street said that the £22m figure related to an £8-per-head payment to support councils with additional contact-tracing, compliance and enforcement work, in line with earlier offers to Merseyside and Lancashire.
But when those two areas went into the most stringent tier 3 level of restrictions, they were also provided with additional support for business.
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