Andy Burnham has warned the end of the coronavirus lockdown must not vary between regions, saying such a move would be ‘unfair and untenable’.
This afternoon the government is due to announce whether it is extending the national lockdown for a further three weeks, although the expectation has for some time been that it will do so.
The debate within government and more widely has already moved on to next month, however, and when and how the restrictions will eventually be eased.
It is understood the idea of a phased release across the regions has been raised by some within government in recent days - potentially meaning London, where the pandemic is a week or two ahead of other regions, would see restrictions ended earlier in order to get the capital’s economy going again.
But Mr Burnham said that would not be acceptable.
“We’ve seen in recent days suggestions floated that there might be a phased regional release from lockdown,” he said.
“I would be very much opposed to that - the idea that other parts of the country return to some sort of normality while people here would very much still be in a lockdown situation would feel to me to be unfair and untenable.
“So we don’t want a set of arrangements drawn up behind closed doors and imposed on us. We think there has to be a debate across the political parties about how best to do this. It’s a very complicated thing to do.”
Greater Manchester is thought to be a week or two behind London’s position, with the peak here not currently expected until around the start of May.
Although over the past week the number of daily Covid admissions here has fallen from around 52 to 41, Mr Burnham said it was too soon to know whether that was a permanent trend.
Intensive care beds are gradually filling, with 226 patients in ICU beds on Wednesday in comparison to 176 the week before.
Any release of the lockdown therefore ‘needs to be thought through carefully’, he said, and ‘mustn’t undermine the stay at home message’.
“We are seeing a steady climb in cases in Greater Manchester at the moment,” he said.
“That is creating pressure on the hospital system. The latest forecasts are that the peak may come slightly later in Greater Manchester than previously thought, so there can be no undermining of the stay at home message at the moment.”
Separately the region’s chief constable has said that when the current restrictions do get eased, it must be done gradually - or else the force would be facing a ‘bank holiday times ten’ policing scenario.
Ian Hopkins said he had flagged that both with the Home Secretary and the commissioner of the Metropolitan police.
“I raised exactly that issue about a phased release,” he said.
“Not phased in terms of regionally-phased, but phased in terms of the regulations.
“Because our real concerns are that it would be like a bank holiday times ten if all of a sudden we went from what we’re facing now to nothing.
“And the demands on policing, I think, would far outweigh anything we might find ourselves facing through the current weeks of the restrictions. So I think that does need thinking through as we start to come out of this crisis.”
