Tier 3 decisions show North treated differently to South, say regional leaders

Leaders in Yorkshire and the North West also criticised the Government for again making decisions affecting millions of people without consultation.

Manchester City Council leader Sir Richard Leese said the Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s announcement that the city would stay in Tier 3 was “bitterly disappointing”.

Sir Richard said: “I cannot say that this announcement is not bitterly disappointing so close to Christmas. For many of our businesses, the possibility of trading, even in a limited way, would have been a brief respite in what has been a devastating year.”

The council leader said: “Additionally, without a Covid-safe hospitality offer during Christmas week, we now run the risk of people finding other ways to socialise which will only increase the number of infections.”

Greater Manchester’s mayor Andy Burnham said he was “not surprised but very disappointed” that his region was staying in Tier 3.

He told BBC Radio 4’s World At One: “Greater Manchester today has lower rates than Liverpool and London had when they were originally put into Tier 2.

“One can only conclude that it’s the changed context in London and the South East which has changed the national context which has led to everybody in the North of England staying in restrictions.

“It feels like if the North has rising cases, the North goes under restrictions; if London and the South East has rising cases, everyone stays under restrictions.”

Chairman of the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbench MPs Sir Graham Brady questioned what Greater Manchester had to do to move out of Tier 3.

The Tory Altringham and Sale West MP said in the Commons: “Can I tell (Matt Hancock) that the statement will be greeted with dismay in Greater Manchester where we have had severe restrictions for nine months, where in nine of the 10 boroughs, rates are below the national average.”

He said: “What exactly do we have to do to move out of Tier 3?”

Mr Hancock said he had looked closely at distinguishing between boroughs in Greater Manchester, but told Sir Graham: “The challenge is that each time we’ve done that in the past we’ve then seen cases rebound and there continues to be significant pressure on the NHS in the North West – including in Manchester.”

In Leeds, council leader Judith Blake told a press conference it had been a “difficult and quite frustrating morning”.

Ms Blake said she believed an earlier statement from Mr Hancock had given Leeds optimism it would be dropped to Tier 2.

She said: “I just would ask particularly that there is a consistency from Government. That they tell us exactly what it is they are expecting us to do.”

Ms Blake said: “It’s the uncertainty, the sense that there is a changing of the rules and I think, quite honestly, a real sense of a lack of fairness in the way that some of the decisions are made.”

She said she believed the decision to leave Leeds in Tier 3 was informed by the national picture, particularly in London and the South East of England, which had led to “a real spirit of caution from Government”.

Ms Blake added: “We have to manage the real sense of frustration that our communities are being regarded in a different way in the South of England.”

The press conference heard that the seven-day case rate in Leeds was now 138.2 per 100,000 people which put it 195th in England.

It heard that more than 3,000 people had now had their first vaccination jabs in the city, with 20,000 expected to be vaccinated before Christmas.

Sheffield City Region mayor Dan Jarvis said: “Once again, mayors and local leaders have been cut out of the decision-making process and not even afforded the basic courtesy of being consulted, or informed in advance, about this decision.”

Mr Jarvis, who is also the Labour MP for Barnsley Central, said: “I know this decision is absolutely the last thing our communities and businesses wanted to hear, another hammer blow to follow so many others.

“After the endless grind and hardship of this extraordinary, terrible year, simply having an ordinary Christmas would have been a huge relief.

“For many of our businesses, these days and weeks are critical to their survival.”

Mr Jarvis said the infection rates across South Yorkshire’s four local authorities ranged from 143 to 234 per 100,000 people.

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