[ad_1]
When Boris Johnson threatened to drop talks with Andy Burnham about a Covid rescue package, the mayor of Manchester thought he was bragging.
Having come to power promising to ‘level’ the North, the Prime Minister would not dare to confront him over a £ 5 million gap in their positions, would he?
Johnson, who longs to be loved more than any other prime minister, would be terrified that former Labor voters of the ‘Red Wall’ would give up on him.
It wouldn’t go away simply for a drop in the bucket compared to the tsunami of cash thrown into the fight against Covid nationwide.
When Boris Johnson (pictured) threatened to drop talks with Andy Burnham about a Covid rescue package, the mayor of Manchester thought he was lying.
And then over the head of ‘Manc of the People’ Burnham, impose a Level 3 blockade on the city like a Last Days Napoleon.
It’s Boris, not Boney. Well, he just left. Johnson, the man of bragging and bragging, denounced Burnham’s deception.
The mayor tried to hide his defeat by claiming moral authority, accusing Johnson of treating Manchester’s fate like a game of poker.
In reality, it was Burnham who tried to get more money than Liverpool had been given.
Had he won, it would have been a useful card to play when he stands for re-election six months from now.
Since the Manchester closure loomed, Burnham has been bombastic in his raincoat and black shirt, a cross between a retired boy band member and the leader of the anti-Soviet Polish shipyard Lech Walesa.
He may have the supple bangs and bulging eyes of a crooner, but he’s not a Manchester Walesa.
After state school and Cambridge University, he went from political adviser to minister.
Recently, he evoked the spirit of the miners’ strike of the 1980s, claiming that Johnson was treating his citizens like “canaries in the coal mine.”
On Tuesday, he accused the prime minister of trying to “grind them into the ground.”
It would be more convincing if Burnham’s brief period in the cabinet had not been marred by two major controversies.
He was chief secretary of the Treasury when the financial crisis began in 2007.
In Labor’s 2010 election defeat, largely due to the perception that the nation had gone bankrupt, Burnham’s successor as Chief Secretary of the Treasury, Liam Byrne, explained the truth to the incoming government: “There is no money left.” . Burnham spent something.
And then, over the head of ‘Manc of the People’ Burnham (pictured), impose a Level 3 blockade on the city like a Last Days Napoleon.
And then his tenure as Secretary of Health in 2010 was marred by accusations of appalling negligence in the health service following the revelation that up to 1,200 patients at Stafford Hospital had died needlessly; There were also reports of “excessive” death rates in 14 NHS trusts in England.
Burnham denied any wrongdoing. But you might think that anyone accused of not doing enough to prevent unnecessary deaths would think twice about considering anything that could lead to “excess deaths” as a result of Covid in Manchester.
Which is what Johnson warned would happen as a result of Burnham’s intransigence.
Some point out that Burnham was defeated by Jeremy Corbyn in the 2015 leadership contest, and that only now is he able to enjoy the spotlight he always craved as the glamorous new kid from Labor.
Burnham’s allies insist that his high-profile “David vs. Goliath” battle has paid huge political dividends.
They say Johnson will now be vilified in parts of the North just like Margaret Thatcher.
Worryingly for Johnson, some Conservative MPs in the North share this grim view.
But it should be seen in context. A former Conservative cabinet minister with a seat in the North told me: ‘If you are a Conservative MP in Manchester and a local merchant complains’ why would you make me go broke when my shop was in Guildford or Windsor could it stay open? ‘, you have to take their side publicly.’
In my book, Johnson had no other choice. He couldn’t afford to ask for a ransom by flaunting Burnham or other mayors; They don’t have to pay to clear up the coronavirus chaos, Johnson does.
Tellingly, less publicity-hungry Labor mayors such as Sheffield’s Dan Jarvis and Liverpool’s Steve Rotheram have landed generous Covid bailouts without any Burnham-style histrionics. The prime minister must have a national vision and show true leadership.
It will not always win you friends and may cause you to lose votes in the North in the next election.
But if by avoiding a national lockdown and cracking down on cities like Manchester, the UK emerges from the pandemic in better shape, Johnson will have passed a much more important test: the test of a true leader.
There is also a broader dimension to his hard ball tactics.
He’s sending a message to Michel Barnier, the EU’s top Brexit negotiator, who believes that Johnson’s threat to walk away from the trade talks is just a hoax.
How could the UK ruin a trade deal with the EU due to a small dispute, relatively speaking, over fishing rights?
He wouldn’t dare, he’s all boastful, they say in Brussels.
But however “small” the dispute over fishing rights may be, it is no less important to Johnson than the 5 million pounds that turned his back on Burnham. And Barnier will have noticed that, despite this, Johnson still got his way.
