Manchester police called out to 40 house parties in one night despite lockdown

Police in Manchester were dispatched to 40 house parties that went ahead on Thursday night despite coronavirus restrictions, with one seeing an officer suffer a broken jaw.

Assistant Chief Constable Nick Bailey told BBC Radio Manchester that the force has been dealing with an extra 2,000 calls a week since the new COVID rules were introduced.

Greater Manchester has been placed under extra measures compared to most of the rest of England.

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Residents there have been told not to meet people they don’t live with inside private homes, except if in a support bubble, or visit someone’s home or garden if they live in the affected areas.

ACC Bailey said while “most of the time” people were compliant, “what we are also seeing is some extreme cases where the nature of the gatherings that are in breach obviously involve alcohol, lots of people.

“Take last night for instance, there were probably 40 house parties that we attended last night alone across Greater Manchester,” he said.

“One large house party in Stockport, we’ve potentially got an officer who’s been assaulted by a female and had their jaw broken, we’ve got family members fighting in the house when they shouldn’t have even been together in the same house.”

He said he knew that people want to be with relatives and friends, usually combined with drinking alcohol, and said officers try to go and communicate the rules to people.

Earlier in August, Manchester police were sent to a party attended by 200 people in Gorton.

Greater Manchester is not the only area to be put under a local lockdown, with Leicester having been placed in varying degrees of restrictions for weeks.

Parts of Lancashire and West Yorkshire have also been placed under tighter rules while Oldham has seen some restrictions introduced but avoided a full lockdown.

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