Covid: Greater Manchester to move to tier 3 restrictions from Friday

Greater Manchester will move to England's highest tier of coronavirus restrictions from Friday at 00:01 BST, the prime minister has announced.

Speaking at No 10, Boris Johnson said "not to act now" would put the lives of Manchester's residents "at risk".

He said a "generous" offer of financial support had been made to the region but that Mayor Andy Burnham had refused it.

Mr Burnham said he had not been offered enough to "protect the poorest people in our communities".

Under tier three rules - currently only applied to Lancashire and the Liverpool City Region - pubs and bars not serving substantial meals have to close, while household mixing is banned indoors and outdoors in hospitality settings and private gardens.

Betting shops, casinos, bingo halls, adult gaming centres and soft play areas will also have to close, while there is guidance against travelling in or out of the area.

Greater Manchester is currently under tier two rules, meaning pubs and restaurants must close at 22:00, there is no household mixing indoors and the rule of six applies outdoors.

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Ahead of the Downing Street press conference, Mr Burnham - speaking alongside other local leaders - said that without a "bare minimum" of £65m in additional business support, tighter measures "would be certain to increase levels of poverty, homelessness and hardship" among the region's 2.8 million population.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock later told the House of Commons that a £60m offer previously made to local leaders remained "on the table".

On the inability to agree on financial help, Mr Johnson said: "I do regret this. As I said last week, we would have a better chance of defeating the virus if we work together."

He added Greater Manchester would receive £22m in funding as part of a "comprehensive package of support" but that the "door was open to continue the conversation" about further aid, so long as it was in line with that offered to other areas in same position.

The £22m mentioned by Mr Johnson - which is for expenses such as local enforcement and test and trace - is separate to the £60m that Mr Hancock spoke of.

In addition, the new Job Support Scheme will cover 67% of the wages - funded by employers and the government - of people affected by tier three closures.

Boris Johnson says he can't give Greater Manchester disproportionately more money than other tier three areas.

Andy Burnham says that he won't accept a deal that will lead to increased levels of hardship and homelessness.

But there are political risks on all sides here.

Could Boris Johnson look like a Whitehall bean-counter who can't bring himself to stump up an extra £5m?

Does Andy Burnham look like he's overplayed his part as "King of the North" (as some now call him)?

All the while, those living in Greater Manchester might wonder what on earth is actually going to happen on Friday, in terms of financial support, as new measures kick in.

That surely is now the next deadline. And I suspect political leaders on all sides won't want to have to explain to people, on Friday morning, why they couldn't reach an agreement in time.

Explaining the decision to impose tougher restrictions on Greater Manchester, Mr Hancock said hospital admissions in the region were higher now than at the end of March.

"There are now more Covid-19 patients in Greater Manchester hospitals than in the whole of the South West and the South East combined," he added.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth, meanwhile, said residents of Manchester would be "watching the news in disbelief".

He said they would be asking: "Why was it right to cover 80% of wages in March and then now, in the run-up to Christmas, cover just two-thirds of their wages in October?"

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the party would force a Commons vote on Wednesday, demanding a "fair deal" for areas facing tier three restrictions.

Conservative MP Chris Green, who represents Bolton West, wrote on Facebook that Bolton had "been through a far tougher lockdown than Tier 3 and it didn't work".

He added: "The government believes that three weeks of closing pubs and soft play centres will make a dramatic difference. It hasn't and it won't."

However, six other Conservative MPs from the region have written to Mr Burnham to express their "concern and deep disappointment" about what they called "his failure to come to an agreement with the Government" on a support package.

The signatories ask Mr Burnham to "make way" for "local MPs and council leaders" to "have a go at getting a sensible settlement".

Kate Nicholls - the head of industry body UKHospitality - described the move to tier three as "another huge blow for our sector and a very bitter disappointment for hospitality businesses in Manchester".

"We need a practical and workable package of support for the whole of Manchester's hospitality sector in order to keep these businesses afloat and jobs alive," she said. "Jobs, once lost, are not always easily revived and businesses closed not easily reopened."

Meanwhile, the PM confirmed that conversations were ongoing with leaders in South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and the North East about the possibility of moving to the very high alert level, tier three.

The leaders of West Yorkshire's council later said a decision had been made to maintain tier two status in the county this week.

It comes as the latest government figures showed that, on Tuesday, the UK recorded a further 21,330 coronavirus cases and a further 241 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.

The rising case numbers in England have led some scientists and politicians to call for a so-called "circuit breaker" - a short, sharp lockdown such as that being brought in for Wales.

But speaking alongside Mr Johnson at Downing Street, England's deputy chief medical officer, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, said this approach would be "inappropriate" for parts of England where the disease was lower and "very hard to justify for some communities".

In Wales, people will be told to stay at home from Friday, while pubs, restaurants and non-essential shops will shut as part of the "short, sharp" national lockdown until 9 November.

A two-week school closure has begun in Northern Ireland as part of a tightening of restrictions.

And in Scotland, the tightest restrictions are in place in the central belt, and there are plans for a three-tier framework of measures, similar to England's.

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