Coronavirus UK: Boris Johnson backed down from imposing Tier 3 on Manchester amid policing fears

Boris Johnson backed down from plunging Manchester into Tier Three coronavirus restrictions amid fears police would not enforce the rules without Mayor Andy Burnham’s backing. 

Greater Manchester Police currently answers to the city’s Labour Mayor, while police and crime commissioners – a role filled in Manchester by Mr Burnham – have the power to set strategic priorities for their local constabularies.

This means that police enforcement of restrictions is contingent on the support of Mr Burnham, who is refusing to move the region into Tier Three without a full reinstatement of the furlough scheme.  

Meanwhile, official figures show that the infection rate is dropping in Greater Manchester and Newcastle despite anti-Covid measures, in a development that risks undermining the Government’s public health messaging.

Nearly 600 coronavirus cases were recorded in Manchester on September 30, which then fell to 377 recorded cases on October 9. On Thursday, there were just two cases in Manchester. In Newcastle, 277 cases were recorded on October 6, which similarly fell down to 170 infections on October 9 and just 10 cases on Thursday.  

Mr Burnham accused Mr Johnson of treating the North like a ‘sacrificial lamb’ and a ‘canary in the coalmine’ with experimental restrictions, claiming if London was in the same position there would be a national shutdown.  

It is thought that negotiations between the Government and Manchester’s leaders will continue over the weekend with no decision likely to be made before Monday.    

The Prime Minister yesterday sent a stark message as he demanded that leaders in Greater Manchester focussed on ‘saving lives’ and said that he would step in if the two sides could not agree. 

Mr Burnham said the ‘very least’ he would accept was a full reinstatement of the furlough scheme in the region paying 80 per cent of the wages of people unable to work, though this is being ruled out by the Treasury.  

It comes after the Prime Minister hailed an agreement with Lancashire to move the region into the toughest lockdown level, where it joins Liverpool as one of only two areas in the top bracket. 

In other coronavirus developments:   

• A senior Government adviser warned that only a national circuit-breaker lockdown would suppress virus;
• Sir John Bell was echoed by Jeremy Hunt, who also called for public war of words on local restrictions to end; 
• Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson said his brother has died after being admitted to intensive care with Covid;
• Police fought to enforce coronavirus laws in London  as they faced defiance from protesters and drinkers; 
• Mr Johnson said the UK is developing the capacity to manufacture millions of fast turnaround tests for coronavirus which could deliver results in just 15 minutes;
• The National Education Union rowed in behind Sir Keir Starmer’s call for a national circuit-breaker; 
• The Welsh Government will discuss a circuit-breaker lockdown and will announce decisions on Monday;
• Some 15,650 coronavirus cases were recorded in the UK on Friday, alongside 136 deaths;  
• A senior scientist predicted Britain could be carrying out a million coronavirus tests a day by Christmas;
• The Prime Minister’s attention briefly switched from the pandemic to warn a No Deal Brexit was likely as both London and Brussels ramped up their tough talk. 

The Prime Minister had previously said that he wanted ‘maximum local enforcement’, which could only be achieved with ‘maximum local buy-in’.

Home Secretary Priti Patel phoned Ian Hopkins, the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, ‘to make sure they have all the support they need from national politicians but also, more importantly’ from ‘local politicians’.  

The Home Office source also told The Telegraph: ‘The police are not politicised. They have operational independence and it is the police’s job to enforce the law.’      

Mr Johnson said: ‘This is about saving lives. This is about us joining together locally and nationally to get the R down, to make these regional restrictions, this tiering system, work and to save lives.

‘Everybody in Greater Manchester and all the areas that are still finding it difficult should think about it.’

He added: ‘I’d much rather not impose things, I’d much rather that we were able to work out something together with local authorities, with the mayor in Manchester.’   

It comes as a senior Government adviser today warned that only a second national lockdown would achieve the suppression of coronavirus as he blasted other restrictions as ‘biting around the edges’.

Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at the University of Oxford, advocated a national circuit-breaker as he claimed the Government had lost control of an ‘eye-watering’ number of coronavirus cases.

He rubbished suggestions that testing would allow officials to keep the pandemic in check, and called the situation ‘grave’ as he appeared to blame a rise in cases on a national fatigue with the restrictions.  

The top Government adviser then recommended a total shutdown of society and economy in an echo of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s unprecedented call for a national circuit-breaker on Tuesday.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Sir John said: ‘Things look pretty grave at the moment, and the numbers are going up pretty rapidly. I think the other phenomenon you’re seeing is people are pretty unhappy, they’re tired, this has been going on too long, they can’t go about their business, they can’t do the normal things that they would expect to do, hospital staff are exhausted from the last go.

‘I think we’re actually in real trouble, because as that happens compliance and the willingness to help fix this problem starts to dissipate. Having said that, I can see very little way of getting on top of this without some kind of a circuit-breaker because the numbers are actually pretty eye-watering in some bits of the country and I think it’s going to be very hard to get on top of this just biting around the edges.’ 

He added: ‘No one has ever turned back an epidemic or indeed a pandemic with testing. Testing alone has never solved the problem. It’s one of many tools in the toolbox that you sort of need to get it to work, but in the places that have been successful, like South Korea and to some extent China, their ability to pursue the results of testing aggressively has been extremely important in terms of managing it.

‘A majority of people who are infected are not even being identified. So we do have to have a system whereby more ownership is taken by individuals and institutions to make sure that children in schools, students in universities, and people working in businesses stay away from those businesses if they test positive.’

Sir John’s plea for a national clampdown, which would see tougher enforcement of social distancing rules, was then echoed by Jeremy Hunt, who today suggested that he would support a circuit-breaker. 

The former Health Secretary also called for an end to the public war of words over local restrictions, telling the Today programme: ‘I’ve always thought that it’s better to do things quickly and decisively than to wait until the virus has grown so I have a lot of sympathy with that.

‘But I think more important right now is we stop this public war of words between local leaders and national leaders because in a pandemic the most important thing is a consistent message because you really have to have compliance with the very, very important public health messages about social distancing.

‘And if local leaders and national leaders are saying different things, it’s incredibly damaging.

‘I really do urge Andy Burnham and other local leaders to have these arguments, and I’m sure they’re very fierce arguments and I’m sure there’s some justification for some of their concerns, but have those arguments in private not in public because that’s so damaging to the national fight against the virus.’