Power struggle: Johnson orders forced lockdown in Manchester

Status: 07:41 am | Reading time: 4 minutes

WITHTwelve o’clock came and went, but the Mayor of Greater Manchester didn’t budge. For ten days, Andy Burnham had faced a bitter test of strength with Boris Johnson. The deadline for an agreement with the central government in London expired on Tuesday afternoon.

Five hours later, Johnson got down to business and instituted the authority of the British central government. “Greater Manchester is now on high alert. I’m sorry we’re not taking this step together. It is better to defeat the virus by joining forces. “

This is the first time in England and Europe that a central government has imposed a forced blockade on a region. Starting Friday, strict exit restrictions will apply to the region’s 2.8 million people. Almost all “nonessential” restaurants, pubs and shops have to close.

“We must not destroy the faith of the people”

Citizens can only be with people from their own home and cannot leave their region. “Failure to act now would put people’s lives at risk,” Johnson said, referring to the growing number of Covid infections, increasingly affecting people over 60.

Labor Burnham had categorically rebelled against what he considered too radical an intervention by the Conservative head of government, because it would inevitably plunge many people in Manchester into poverty. “It cannot be right that we now have to leave people alone when they face a harsh winter. We have presented the government with a detailed budget for low-wage and self-employed workers to prevent homelessness and poverty, “insisted Burnham just before Johnson’s press conference.

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At first glance, the dispute between Manchester and London is mainly about money. For days, Greater Manchester leaders negotiated with Responsible Minister Robert Jenrick over financial aid, especially to save the already on the brink of collapse in the hospitality and leisure industry. Manchester initially called for an aid package equivalent to 100 million euros to help low-wage earners who will be left unemployed during the lockdown in the coming months.

Johnson’s team recently made an offer equivalent to 66 million euros. In the end, they had approached the equivalent of six million euros. Burnham didn’t want to give in anymore. “We must not completely destroy people’s beliefs,” Burnham said. Johnson plays poker with the lives of the people of his city. The mayor ended with applause with a resigned appeal to his fellow citizens: “Please follow the government regulations now!”

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For the central government of London, the negotiations with Burnham are also delicate because other regions such as Liverpool or Lancashire are already at the highest level of alert but are receiving less financial commitments.

Due to the sharp increase in the number of new infections, London is expected to close other regions and provide additional help.

The ‘North-South conflict’ also has a strong cultural component, which Manchester’s political leadership takes advantage of. “All we ask for is a decent aid package. Why does this government hate Greater Manchester? “Asked Labor MP Andrew Gwynne, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, at a hearing Tuesday morning.

New voters Johnson wants to keep

Britain’s third-largest city council has 92 Labor MPs, but not a single Conservative politician. The metropolis, with its badass charm, unique music and pub scene, likes to present itself as a working-class city, where solidarity is not an empty word and hostility towards London and especially Johnson’s Conservative Party is a good shape.

But it is also one of the regions that marked a historic turning point in the last general election and helped Tory Johnson win. So a new constituency that Johnson is determined to keep.

However, in the Corona crisis, Mayor Burnham also received support from colleagues in Johnson’s group. “We will not allow ourselves to become canaries in the coal mine because the government is experimenting with regional closures,” protested the region’s nine conservative deputies in a joint appeal. An allusion to the miners’ practice of taking a canary to the well, because the poisonous gases that could escape kill the animal immediately and the miners are warned in time.

Mood was also boosted by figures released by the central government that the region would no longer have sufficient capacity in intensive care units in the second week of November. The figures presented by the Johnson administration were chosen selectively and do not correspond to the actual development of corona infections, local politicians criticized. More recently, the number of new infections was 406 per 100,000 inhabitants.