Andy Burnham ‘open-mouthed’ after government unveils tier 2 support ‘to help London’

The North of England is being "dictated to from 200 miles away" and "pushed around" by Westminster, Andy Burnham has said

The Mayor of Greater Manchester, who faced down the government this week seeking extra coronavirus support for his region, accused the government of "dividing and ruling" and taking "one approach for one and one for the other".

Mr Burnham said he was left "open-mouthed" when he read that the government was unveiling new measures to help London now the capital was being put in Tier 2 – despite parts of the north being left in a similar situation for months.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak today unveiled extra help for businesses under Tier 2 restrictions; but the help comes too late for parts of the country like Greater Manchester that have laboured under similar restrictions for months.

Instead, cities like London and Birmingham, which are facing the combination of restrictions for the first time, are likely to benefit.

“I was just opened-mouthed last night when I read the headlines there was going to be a support package that was billed as being for London and Birmingham," he told a committee of MPs on Thursday morning.

“We’ve been under these restrictions for three months… that just doesn’t seem to have featured at all. Bolton had their pubs closed for three weeks with nothing, absolutely nothing despite the fact we did raise that on a regular basis.”

Mr Burnham said the episode showed there “were major questions for the government to answer here on how it's treated places", calling for a “reckoning”. He said regional leaders had been expected to come to Westminster “on bended knee” and ask for help.

Speaking at the same committee hearing, Steve Rotheram, mayor of the Liverpool City Region, echoed the comments

“For far too long, too many decisions have been taken with the interests of the London, I have to say, but the London-centricity and I don’t just mean the area of London I’m talking about the overall London culture, that exists within parliament and that has been hugely disadvantageous to areas like ours,” he said.

More follows…

Read more

Tier 2 Lockdown rules and restrictions explained for ‘high’ alert