MPs slam Government over tier three shambles

Greater Manchester MPs were involved in an angry meeting with care minister Helen Whately in which both Conservative and Labour members of the House of Commons expressed their strong opposition to the city-region being put in tier three Covid-19 restrictions.

Politicians later described the meeting as a shambles while heavily criticising the Government.

It had been expected that Greater Manchester would be put into the very high level of restrictions, only for it to then become clear that no decision had been made and talks would continue throughout Thursday.

Labour MPs are particularly concerned that there is not enough support for businesses which will have to close and their employees under the strictest level of Covid-19 regulations.

Yesterday Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham did not rule out legal action if he thought workers in the region were being left to face hardship without sufficient help.

Ms Nandy tweeted: "Despite repeated attempts to claim we’re divided there was total unity from Conservative and Labour Greater Manchester MPs on the call with the Minister this morning.

"We will support evidence based interventions with adequate financial support. We will not support this chaos."

Ms Fovargue said: "This morning's briefing for GM MPs with the Health Minister demonstrates the incompetence of this Government. There was cross-party support for not moving to Tier 3 restrictions across Greater Manchester.

"I have not seen any evidence that moving to Tier 3 would prove effective in improving health outcomes and would damage the economy and livelihoods. The case has simply not been made by Government nor was any clarity given over support for workers and local businesses.”

Greater Manchester's Conservative MPs are also extremely unhappy with the prospect of the city-region going into very high level restrictions and reports suggested they were particularly vocal in their opposition at Thursday morning's meeting.

Earlier this week Bolton West parliamentary representative Chris Green, whose constituency includes Atherton, resigned from his junior Government role as a parliamentary private secretary over the handling of the coronavirus.

Mr Green said "the cure is worse than the disease" when it comes to Covid-19 measures.