Andy Burnham slams MPs for the way London was spared from Tier 3

Andy Burnham has slammed ministers for their handling of the new tier system, including sparing London from Tier 3. 

Mr Burnham has claimed the government took into account the potential economic impact on the capital in sparing London from Tier 3, but did not do the same for Manchester and the rest of the country.

Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, has called for a review into how ministers announced what tiers to apply and expressed fury at the way London had been placed in Tier 2.

Speaking on Radio 4, Mr Burnham said: “The question I would ask this morning is why did they consider the economic impact on London in making the recent decisions about tiering but not about anywhere else in the country?” 

Adding: “And why have they not put any economic impact data out in this assessment? That is clearly unfair. It gives the impression that jobs outside of London are not worth the same.

“And I think MPs are right to challenge the government on this point. We need to understand what these tiers will do to the economy outside of London and to keep MPs in the dark on that when they are being asked to vote today is quite frankly unacceptable.”

When asked if he accepted the Tier 3 ranking in Greater Manchester, he said: “I can’t dispute the evidence at the moment because we’re above the England average.

“What I do challenge is the way this is being done. The government are doing to the country in December what they did to Greater Manchester in October, that is to railroad it into a punishing underfunded lockdown that will severely damage the hospitality industry and other industries in the supply chain.

“And I hope some Conservative MPs now can understand why we took the stance we did back then. And I say they’re right to take the stance they’re taking now.”

The financial support from the furlough scheme and grants was pointed out to the mayor.

He responded: “Of course, I will look to see what the prime minister puts in the table today. There is talk of more and that is welcome although that’s at a very late hour. The British Beer and Pub Association wrote to the Prime Minister yesterday and they were saying the grants needed to to be the equivalent to the grants in the first lockdown if we’re not to see the loss of huge numbers of pubs across the country.

“Let’s remember what we call wet-led pubs are often in the most deprived communities and they are crucial in those communities because they are a meeting place for people.

“If we see the loss of those pubs, they’ll never come back.

“But there’s a separate issue about the supply chain… The Government have made discretionary support available to councils but what they are saying is there will be no more support for Tier 3 areas than those going into tiers 1 and 2. That cannot possibly be right because this is funding that can be used to support the cleaning industry, catering, security, taxis and all of the industries that are reliant on the pub and restaurant trade.

“And to say to Tier 3 areas you’re getting no more discretionary support than Tier 1 Isle of Wight and Cornwall in Greater Manchester that’s just not a tenable situation.”

Speaking on the decision to allow three household to mix over Christmas, Mr Burnham said: “This is I think part of the problem. The government has been too strict in December to allow a too permissive a Christmas period… I think a more balanced approach should have been taken here.”

The mayor added: “I think a more steady approach would have been better because January is the worst possible time in the National Health Service with or without Covid. And I think it’s a risk to allow five days of mixing of three households.”