The Times - UK (2020-10-17)

6 2GM Saturday October 17 2020 | the times

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lied. “I’m very angry about it,” he said.

The coronavirus rate across Lan-

cashire is 345.1 cases per 100,000, up

from 241.2 the previous week. The

county’s director of public health said

there had been “a steep increase in

hospitalised patients”. Sakthi Karuna-

nithi said that if cases rose at the same

rate, they “may end up where we were

in the peak of the pandemic” in two to

three weeks.

The largest teaching union, the

National Education Union, added to

calls for a circuit-breaker lockdown

yesterday, asking ministers to close

schools for a two-week half term.

At his press conference Mr Johnson

rejected demands for a national circuit-

breaker. “Closing businesses in Corn-

wall... will not cut transmission in

Manchester,” he said.

My Week, Boris Johnson, page 20

Backing lockdown isn’t compassionate,

Janice Turner, page 29

Boris Johnson accused political leaders

in Manchester of risking the lives of

their citizens yesterday as they con-

tinued to refuse to put the region into

the most severe tier of lockdown.

In an attempt to force Andy Burn-

ham, the mayor of Greater Manchester,

to agree to further restrictions in return

for financial support, the prime minis-

ter warned that “more people would

die” for each day without a deal.

He also said that he was prepared to

impose a lockdown on the region if an

agreement could not be struck in the

coming days.

“I completely understand the reluc-

tance of the mayor and his colleagues to

take Manchester into the very high

alert level,” Mr Johnson told a press

conference in Downing Street. “But I

must stress, the situation in Greater

Manchester is grave and it worsens

with each passing day.

“Time is of the essence. Each day that

passes before action is taken means

more people will go to hospital, more

people will end up in intensive care and

tragically more people will die.”

Mr Johnson highlighted new figures

showing Covid-19 cases around the city

doubling in the past nine days. He said

that the number of Covid-19 in-patients

in Manchester’s intensive care units

was already over 40 per cent of the

number at the height of the first wave.

He suggested that concerns about

policing played a role in dissuading him

from imposing Tier 3 restrictions, add-

ing that he wanted “maximum local

enforcement” but that could only be

achieved with “maximum local buy-in”.

Ministers agreed a deal with Lan-

cashire to follow Liverpool into a Tier 3

lockdown, doubling to 3.1 million the

number of people living under the tight-

est rules. At Tier 3, pubs can stay open

only if they operate as restaurants.

Households are banned from mixing

indoors or out.

There are some differences between

regions. Unlike in Liverpool, gyms and

leisure centres in Lancashire will stay

open. Political leaders in Liverpool

called the regulations a “shambles”

after the disparity emerged.

Some northern politicians who have

agreed the tougher restrictions, as well

as Mr Burnham, want a better financial

support package for workers who are

furloughed as a result of the new re-

strictions. They want them to get 80 per

cent of their wages compared with the

government offer of 67 per cent.

“The government is claiming that the

north is divided and only interested in

getting what we can for our own re-

gion,” the statement, also signed by

Jamie Driscoll, the mayor of North

Tyne, and Steve Rotheram, the mayor

of the Liverpool city region, said.

“That is simply not the case. We are

all united in fighting for an 80 per cent

furlough scheme for all people

affected by regional lockdowns,

wherever they are in the country.

This is a fight for what is right.”

Last night Mr Burnham and

the other Greater Manchester

leaders issued a statement say-

ing that after their meeting

with Downing Street

officials on

Thursday morning they had been on

standby for further meetings, which had

not happened.

Political divisions arose, however,

between council leaders within Lan-

cashire over the agreement.

“We think we’ve got a good deal”,

Geoff Driver, the Conservative

leader of Lancashire county

council, said. However, Lynn Willi-

ams, Labour leader of Blackpool

council, said: “If you are told that

unless you agree to go to

Tier 3... you won’t receive

business support, that

felt like being bullied.”

Matthew Brown, the

leader of Preston

council, also felt bul-

Andy Burnham

puts forward his

case for better

financial support

A new “health passport” will be used on

flights out of the UK for the first time

next week under plans for a common

international standard for Covid-safe

air travel.

Passengers flying from Heathrow to

Newark in the US will be among the

first in the world to use the digital

health document as part of a trial

programme.

Under the plan, they will take a test at

the London airport up to 72 hours

before travelling as well as completing

the health questionnaires demanded

by US border authorities. The results

will be logged on a smartphone app

which can be scanned by airline staff

and border officials without the need

Digital ‘health passport’

Graeme Paton Transport Correspondent for multiple separate documents. The

so-called CommonPass system, which

is backed by the World Economic

Forum (WEF), is designed to create a

global framework that can be used by

countries to demonstrate that passen-

gers are safe to travel.

The WEF said the “patchwork of pol-

icies” on border entry and health

screening was contributing to the col-

lapse in public confidence in air travel.

This week, Heathrow reported that

only 1.2 million passengers travelled

through the UK’s busiest airport last

month, which was down by 82 per cent

compared with a year earlier.

At present, the UK requires all pas-

sengers entering from “high risk” coun-

tries with large numbers of Covid-

cases to quarantine for two weeks. The

News Coronavirus

You’re putting lives in danger,

Profile By Iain Martin

D

ressed in a

cagoule

and dark

shirt, Andy

Burnham

gave an impassioned

performance at an

impromptu press

conference in

Manchester this

week. The shades of a

cloak and coat of

armour in his outfit

earned him a

nickname, after a

character in the TV

series Game of

Thrones: “King of the

north”.

The general thrust

of his complaint is

that Manchester and

the other great cities

of the north of

England are being

experimented on by a

heartless government

of reckless southern

Tories imposing

draconian restrictions

while sparing the

home counties.

Mr Burnham has

deftly grabbed the

chance to appear as a

battler for the left-

behind, but the

suspicion is that he

has spotted an

opportunity to return

as a major Labour

player on the coattails

of Sir Keir Starmer.

So who is Andy

Burnham, and what

does he want?

Opinions among

former colleagues

vary wildly. “Andy is

the real deal,” says

one senior figure from

the Tony Blair era,

who thinks that Mr

Burnham’s brand of

“aspirational

socialism” will make

him a powerful figure

in the Starmer

ascendancy as the

party fights to regain

power in 2024. “Oh

dear, what a

performance,” says a

former minister from

the Gordon Brown

era. “What does Andy

believe today?”

Throughout his

political career,

beginning in the mid-

1990s as a Blairite bag

carrier to Tessa

Jowell, Mr Burnham,

50, has shifted shape,

finding a way to serve

first Mr Blair, then Mr

Brown, then Ed

Miliband and even the

far-left Jeremy

Corbyn — Mr

Burnham resigned as

shadow home

secretary under Mr

Corbyn in 2016, giving

up his seat at

Westminster to stand

for the Greater

Manchester

mayoralty in 2017.

Although Mr

Burnham’s political

base is in Manchester

— he was MP for

Leigh, Greater

Manchester, from

2001 to 2017 — he was

born in Aintree,

Liverpool.

After Fitzwilliam

College, Cambridge,

where he studied

English, he drifted for

a while between

internships, toying

with publishing and

journalism.

Meeting Ms Jowell

— New Labour

royalty — was the big

break. After three

years working for her,

he became a special

adviser to the culture

secretary Chris Smith

during Mr Blair’s first

term. Once he had

bagged a Westminster

seat, his progress

through the junior

ranks was swift.

Under Mr Brown

between 2007 and

2010, Mr Burnham

served as chief

secretary to the

Treasury, culture

secretary and then

health secretary. The

advocacy of Mr

Burnham, an

Evertonian, on behalf

of the Liverpool

Hillsborough families

won him plaudits.

Here was someone

who had been singled

out by the leadership

class to carry the New

Labour flame to a

new generation. It did

not work out like that.

In 2010, after Mr

Brown’s defeat, Mr

Burnham launched

his first bid for the

party leadership,

advocating what he

termed “aspirational

socialism”. He was not

in favour of wealth

taxes, he said,

because his mother

thought punitive

taxation suggested a

return to the 1970s.

A serial leadership

contestant since then,

he came a distant

second to Mr Corbyn

in 2015. The decision

to serve in what

followed left the

former Blairite

pledging loyalty to a

Marxist leadership

amid a far-left

takeover.

The timely decision

to abandon Mr

Corbyn and stand for

the mayoralty was

astute. Mr Burnham

had spotted that the

trend in English

politics, since

accelerated by the

Covid crisis, was

towards devolution.

Regional figures get a

big national audience,

as Mr Burnham did

this week.

His strength lies in

a determination to

keep going. His

weakness is that after

so much shape-

shifting down the

years, his beliefs are,

his critics say,

endlessly flexible.

“Andy is one of the

most unprincipled

politicians I have ever

met,” says a former

ministerial colleague.

“His speech this week

about the supposed

attack on the north

was disgraceful,

populist rubbish.”

Oliver Wright Policy Editor

Charlotte Wace

Northern Correspondent

Boris Johnson, at a

press conference

at No 10 yesterday,

said that time was

of the essence to

combat the spread

in Manchester