Matt Hancock blames argument with Greater Manchester leaders for how new tier system will be decided

Matt Hancock has explained the row between local leaders and government members in Greater Manchester influenced minister’s decision to take away the possibility negotiations in the new tier system.

The revised tier system will come into force on December 2nd when the national lockdown ends, with ministers imposing Tier 3 restrictions in the highest risk areas.

In the previous tier system, ministers entered discussions with local leaders over the appropriate measures in the area as well as having conversations on how they will be funded. 

Mayor Andy Burnham led several days worth of intense talks over the measures as he attempted to negotiate a financial package to help those most affected in our region.

Speaking yesterday at the Health and Social Care Committee in the House of Commons, Mr Hancock said those talk with Mr Burnham were part of the reason the government had scrapped the negotiations this time around.

He told MPs: “The reason we are doing it differently is whilst in most cases when we negotiated with most areas in the previous tiered arrangement, we had a high quality discussion which led to better outcomes – a case in point is Liverpool, where the case rate has fallen by over two-thirds in the last three weeks.

“Unfortunately that wasn’t the case in all local areas.”

When asked if he was talking about Greater Manchester by MP Graham Stringer, Hancock replied: “That would be one example but not the only one.

“Sadly, in the case of Greater Manchester, cases carried on going up whilst we were trying to put in place the measures that were necessary, so instead we’ve proposed a set of measures within the tiers which are fixed, also financial support which is agreed by formula rather than negotiation.

“We will have engagement but what we won’t have is a two-week long negotiation while the cases still go up, that is bad for public health.”

In the new system, it is understood that more areas will be placed under tighter restrictions to keep the virus under control.

The decision of what tier is placed on a region will be made by the government based on cases numbers in all age groups, case numbers specifically in the over 60s, rates by which cases are falling or rising, infection rates per 100,000 people and the projected pressures on the NHS.

Mr Burnham accused the government yesterday of wanting to ‘punish and blame’ him. It comes following transport secretary Grant Shapps comments on the negotiations in mid October that led to rates not being ‘gotten on top of as quickly as possible’ in Greater Manchester.

Speaking to Kay Burly on Sky News, Burnham said: “It just seems to me that they can’t leave it alone now and they want to come back and they want to punish me and blame me for everything.

“Can’t we just agree there was a difference of opinion, it was resolved and now we all must look forward to getting things right going forward.”

The decision on which tier each region in England will be place in is set to be announced on Thursday.