Boris Johnson’s government has ignored regional leaders by ditching the mandatory requirement to wear face coverings on public transport beyond 19 July, said Andy Burnham.
The Greater Manchester mayor said the “lack of clarity” over whether people should continue to wear masks on buses, trains and trams would cause local leaders and transport bosses huge problems.
“We weren’t formally consulted … If we had been involved in discussions about yesterday’s announcement, all of us would have made the argument about [the need for] masks on public transport,” Mr Burnham said Tuesday.
“The government may have chosen to ignore our advice. But we would have appreciated an opportunity to say, ‘The reality of managing public transport … when there isn’t clarity anymore on masks, it will cause issues for us.’”
Mr Burnham has said he would not defy the government and make them mandatory on the Manchester tram network, controlled by his office, saying: “I just don’t think it would work.”
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Mayor of London Sadiq Khan – also firmly opposed the end of mandatory masks – said he would hold talks with Transport for London, the Department for Transport and others before deciding on “next steps” regarding advice for passengers.
Health secretary Sajid Javid said on Tuesday that the government wanted people to exercise personal responsibility when it comes to masks, rather than continue with legal regulations.
Mr Javid told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he would wear a mask on a crowded tube carriage, but not on a less-crowded train carriage – even if the advice was to wear a face covering.
“If I was on the west coast mainline, going up to my constituency, and it’s late at night and there was about three people on it, then even if it said, ‘We recommend a mask’, I wouldn’t wear a mask.”
Meanwhile, Mr Burnham called on the government to “fill in the map” and expand the number of directly-elected mayors in England – urging the prime minister to “give everywhere a chance at a devolution deal”.
Speaking to MPs on the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, he repeated his called for a Senate of English regional and national leaders from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to replace the House of Lords.
“I think the problem lies in the completion of the devolved picture. Once you’ve filled in that map of the English regions, there needs to be mechanism for those entities to be represented,” said Mr Burnham.
“I would look at reformed House of Lords, a regionally-constituted House of Lords. Some representation should be found for all of the devolved entities in England.”
He added: “The Commons equally reflects the country, but the Lords doesn’t. I can’t see how there can be any justification at all for continuing with the House of Lords in its current form.”
