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The mayor of Greater Manchester has vowed to consider legal action if the region undergoes the strictest level of coronavirus restrictions without further financial support.
Andy Burnham, the former Labor MP, used an online press conference on Wednesday to confirm that he would oppose any move to place Greater Manchester at Level 3 of the government’s new three-tier system for localized lockdown measures.
He said that if such action was taken, it would be “by imposition, not consent” and that he would “not give in to pressure” by accepting the restrictions.
Burnham and his team are due to hold talks with Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s officials Thursday morning about Greater Manchester’s COVID-19 measures.
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Burnham said he feared “a winter in which much of the north is trapped in Level 3” as the Liverpool city region was the first part of England to enter the toughest restrictions on Wednesday.
Under the new government rules, people living in Level 3 areas would see people banned from socializing with other households both indoors and in private gardens, while bars and pubs would be closed unless they can only operate as restaurants. .
In Liverpool, gyms, leisure centers, betting houses and casinos have also been closed and wedding receptions banned.
“We are law abiding people, we would respect the law of the land,” Burnham said of the possibility of Greater Manchester being reclassified from Level 2 to Level 3.
“But we would consider other routes, legal routes, where we could protect our thousands of residents who are going to be in dire straits in the run-up to Christmas.
“We would not leave them in the lurch, we would try to support them and that would include any legal action we may take on their behalf.”
Mr Burnham endorsed a nationwide “circuit breaker” lockout, as called for by Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer, as a “better and fairer way” to try to reduce infection rates.
The Mayor of Greater Manchester was joined at the press conference by Steve Rotherham, the Mayor of the Liverpool City region, who also raised the possibility of a legal challenge against the government.
Rotherham, also a former Labor MP, described the government’s replacement of the licensing scheme, which will end later this month, with a new support system for companies told to close due to coronavirus restrictions as potentially “discriminatory”.
He said: “The hospitality industry has some of the lowest paying jobs in the country and we have some communities that are disproportionately dependent on jobs like hospitality.
“So to me it seems to be discriminatory for the government to say ‘well, we gave people 80% in March, but since it’s happening somewhere in the Liverpool city region, you can only get two.’ -thirds of your salary ‘”.
He added: “What we might well be talking about, collectively, is getting together and challenging this presumption that people can live on two-thirds of their salary.”
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Rotherham dubbed the Employment Support Program, which will open from November 1 and will see the government pay two-thirds of the salaries of employees of companies that were forced to close due to COVID-19 rules, such as “free license”.
He promised a “local permit” in the Liverpool city region to “do what the government has not done” and “fill the gap left by the national permitting scheme.”
Details of the local plan will be released on Thursday, Rotherham said.
