Northern leaders are in revolt over the threat of tougher Covid-19 restrictions, which Boris Johnson is expected to announce within days.
Surging infection rates – Manchester’s has doubled in a week to more than 500 cases per 100,000 people, with Liverpool and Newcastle close behind – are piling pressure on the prime minister to act.
But the leaders of Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle city councils have written to the government, arguing its strategy is failing and that they should be put in control.
“The existing restrictions are not working, confusing for the public and some, like the 10pm rule, are counter-productive,” the Labour politicians say.
The letter adds: “We want to be clear however that we do not support further economic lockdowns.”
The leaders demand extra powers to punish people who break rules, that police, council and public health experts draw up restrictions and a locally-controlled test and trace system.
The opposition of elected local leaders is a fresh headache for Mr Johnson, as scientists urge him to respond to the gathering crisis with further shutdowns of parts of society.
Professor John Edmunds, an adviser on the government's SAGE committee, agreed that the current restrictions across a swathe of the North “haven't been very effective”
But he told BBC Newsnight: “We need to take much more stringent measure – not just in the North of England, we need to do it countrywide, and bring the epidemic back under control.”
Jeremy Farrar, head of the Wellcome Trust and another SAGE member, pointed to intensive care units struggling to cope in France, saying: “A fudge will neither deliver an open economy nor save lives.”
At present, decisions are made by a small Cabinet committee, to the fury of local leaders who are often informed with only hours to spare.
Scientific advisers are believed to have called for urgent action, after coronavirus cases doubled in 11 days to 14,542 while deaths doubled to 76 in the same period.
Hospital admissions in England jumped by a quarter in one day, sparking fresh concerns about the ability of the NHS to cope over winter in infection hotspots.
Those fears are most acute in the North West, where admissions rose by 60 per cent in a day. The region has nine times as many Covid patients as the South East.
Infection rates in Manchester (529 cases per 100,000 people), Knowsley (499), Liverpool (487) and Newcastle (434) are higher than EU infection hotspots such as Madrid and Paris.
But Northern leaders – as well as being convinced the existing strategy is failing – fear an unemployment explosion if tougher restrictions are introduced without financial support.
Just £7m has been promised for nine areas – and that is for infection control, rather than to help people facing the dole queue.
