Andy Burnham says the government's proposed new furlough scheme is 'insufficient' and could lead to 'severe hardship'.
The mayor of Greater Manchester and other leaders across the north have rejected the Chancellor's recently announced financial package expected to come in alongside new lockdown measures - and are urging the government to reconsider.
Mr Burnham said the proposals would mean people working in the hospitality sector are treated as 'second class citizens' and could lead to 'severe redundancies' across the economy.
He said it would cause communities to 'level down' and 'widen the north-south divide'.
Mr Burnham told reporters: "To accept the Chancellor's package as outlined yesterday, would be to surrender our residents to hardship in the run up to Christmas, and our businesses to potential failure or collapse, and we are not prepared to do that.
"It would also run the risk of severe redundancies across the north of England, particularly when you combine the effect of any new local restrictions.
"We think it would be to do long term damage to the economy of Greater Manchester and the north of England, and would actually weaken recovery.
"This package is insufficient to protect our communities as we go into the rest of the autumn and the winter."
The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, previously that under a new localised furlough scheme, employees of businesses forced to close would receive just over two thirds of their pay, in comparison to the 80 per cent during the national lockdown earlier this year.
Mr Burnham said this would lead to 'severe hardship'.
He said: "If you work in a bar or a kitchen linked to a pub, on possibly living wage, but more likely minimum wage, how is it possible to live on two-thirds of your wages, when actually the Government has forced your place of work to close?
"Those people can't choose to pay two-thirds of their rent, or two-thirds of their bills.
"It would of course put them into severe hardship."
He added: "Given that the hospitality sector is going to be most affected by local restrictions, to accept this would be to accept that hospitality workers are somehow second class citizens, and won't accept that."
The mayor he has written to MPs who represent constituencies across the north of the country, urging them to call on the government to reconsider the plans.
