Evening summary
That’s it for today as the conflict between central government and local leaders in Greater Manchester rumbles on – here’s a quick recap of the key points.
- Some welcome clarification this evening from the health and social care secretary, Matt Hancock, as he confirmed the government’s offer of financial support for Greater Manchester businesses “remains on the table”.
- It came after Boris Johnson confirmed the government was imposing tier 3 on the region from 12.01am on Friday, but failed to clarify in his press conference the situation regarding financial support.
- Earlier, at his own press conference, the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, said £60m had been on the table for business and employment support but he rejected it, because he said the region needed £65m as a bare minimum.
- He found out during the conference on live TV that the government was steaming ahead with tier 3 despite talks having broken down.
- Labour will force a vote in the House of Commons tomorrow on local lockdown restrictions to ensure a “fair, one-nation deal”.
For all the latest coronavirus updates head to our global liveblog
Updated
Labour to force Commons vote on local lockdown deals tomorrow
The Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, has said the party will force a Commons vote tomorrow demanding a “fair, one-nation deal” for areas facing tier 3 restrictions.
The party said it will urge its MPs to back its motion demanding “the government guarantees people faced with hardship who are subject to the job retention scheme extension will receive at least 80% of their previous incomes”.
Starmer said:
The Conservatives have been treating local communities, particularly in the Midlands, north-west and north-east, and their leaders with contempt.
This is not just a matter of fairness for people in Greater Manchester, but for people across the country who could find themselves in tier 3 in the weeks ahead.
Families and businesses will be deeply anxious that they might not be able to make ends meet under the government’s wholly inadequate proposals.
The prime minister and the chancellor need to make good on their commitment to the British people to do whatever it takes to help us through this pandemic.
We need a fair, one-nation deal that can help us through the second wave.
I would urge all Conservative MPs, particularly those in areas of the country that are most affected by this, to vote with us tomorrow and force the government’s hand.
The Government's treatment of the North West has been a disgrace. It is treating millions of people with contempt.
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) October 20, 2020
Tomorrow Labour will force Parliament to vote for a fair deal for communities facing restrictions.
Updated
Hancock was challenged on the fact gyms in the Liverpool city region have been forced to close, in contrast to other tier 3 areas where they have not.
“Why don’t we have a conversation about it and see if we can make any progress?” he responded.
Updated
Matt Hancock has asserted “the money we are proposing for Greater Manchester is exactly the same as the amount that was agreed with the leadership of Liverpool and Lancashire”.
I hope that we can resolve this, but we needed to act after 10 days with infections still going up.
Sir Graham Brady, the Conservative MP for Altrincham and Sale West in Greater Manchester, said:
The lockdowns themselves cost lives as well as livelihoods, they have a terrible toll on the mental health particularly of the young. It is better to do these things, if they must be done, by consent.
He asked for the measures to be approved by parliament, and asked for confirmation the tier 3 restrictions will end after 28 days.
Hancock said the measures will be brought to the house and end after 28 days, but will be kept under review.
Updated
A question from Dr Philippa Whitford, SNP MP for Central Ayrshire:
The majority of people try to follow the advice to reduce the spread of Covid. We know that the virus spreads when people are in close contact. This isn’t just pubs and nightclubs but people in overcrowded housing or working in exposed jobs where working from home isn’t an option.
Is it not a bit inappropriate for MPs with well-paid and secure jobs to suggest that rising Covid cases in certain areas are just due to some form of misbehaviour requiring tougher penalties?
Sometimes people feel they have no option than to keep going out of the house.
Hancock said the £500 payment for people on low incomes to isolate is working.
Updated
Response from the shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth:
I am afraid that tonight people across Manchester will be watching the news in disbelief and they will be worried and asking: why was it right to cover 80% of wages in March and now, in the run-up to Christmas, cover just two thirds.
I know that across Manchester people will want to do the right thing but they won’t be able to if a third of their income is stripped away.
He said it will mean “a winter of hardship across the north” and concluded “this is a national crisis and we will not defeat this virus on the cheap”.
Updated
Financial support for Greater Manchester businesses 'remains on the table'
Hancock reiterated the government’s “difficult” decision to place Greater Manchester under tier 3 measures, similar to those in Liverpool and Lancashire, from Friday.
He outlined the financial support available, including the national job support scheme and £22m for test and trace, and said the government’s offer of a support package for businesses – which was rejected by the mayor, Andy Burnham – still stands.
That offer remains on the table, our door is open.
Updated
Matt Hancock says the coronavirus “remains a perilous threat”, and weekly deaths in the country have risen to their highest level since July.
We must act where the virus is spreading... it is our sombre duty to take the action necessary to protect people’s lives and the NHS.
The average daily hospital admissions for coronavirus in Manchester are now higher than they were on 26 March.
Updated
Hancock about to speak in House of Commons following Greater Manchester announcement
The health secretary, Matt Hancock, is about to speak in the House of Commons following the government’s decision to impose tier 3 restrictions in Greater Manchester from Friday.
Updated
Some reactions from MPs on the government’s announcement on Greater Manchester restrictions.
It’s an utter disgrace that businesses and workers in GM won’t get an extra penny from government to support them in Tier 3.
— Lucy Powell MP (@LucyMPowell) October 20, 2020
Andy is right: it’s utter spite.
The idea of all in this together has been totally shattered this week.
Disgraceful , a punishment nothing else, Greater Manchester been badly let down by the PM and his cronies in govt. Spiteful, Vindictive and Nasty, so many will now suffer great hardship, it will be the ones again who can least take it. Tories really do not care about the North. https://t.co/MFs6Ud1mBQ
— 🌈 Angela Rayner 🌈 (@AngelaRayner) October 20, 2020
Rayner is the MP for Ashton-under-Lyne which will now also be moved into the Tier 3 category.
Updated
West Yorkshire council leaders said they had not met government ministers on Tuesday but a decision had been made to maintain tier 2 restrictions in the county.
In a statement, the leaders said:
Local and national public health experts agree that there is not a case to move West Yorkshire to tier 3 this week.
The decision to maintain tier 2 (high risk) restrictions reflects the progress that has been made by councils, Public Health England, the NHS and other partners working together to reduce the spread of Covid-19 and protect lives.
The leaders urged the government to respond to and support their economic proposals and said it was “essential” that the public follow the rules to avoid increased restrictions becoming necessary.
Updated
I think this is a clip we’re going to be seeing a lot over the next few weeks, the moment Greater Manchester’s mayor, Andy Burnham, finds out live on TV that the government are imposing tier 3 restrictions in the region from Friday - with a £22m package for test and trace and no confirmation of a previous additional £60m offer for business support.
Updated
One in 10 people in England will be under the strictest Covid control measures after the imposition of tier 3 lockdown measures on Greater Manchester later this week.
The move, which affects 2.8 million residents living in Manchester, Bolton, Bury, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, Salford, Rochdale and Oldham, brings to 5.9 million the number of people living in “very high” Covid alert areas.
When taking the 22.4 million people who live in tier 2 areas - which include all the London boroughs – half of the population of England is in a “high” or “very high” alert area.
Updated
Hi everyone, this is Jessica Murray.
I’ll be running the blog for an extra couple of hours this evening as the health secretary, Matt Hancock, makes a statement in the Commons at 7pm, following the announcement that Greater Manchester is going into tier 3 restrictions after midnight on Thursday.
It will be a chance for MPs to ask questions about the situation, with a number of Greater Manchester Conservative MPs on the speakers list – expect questions from Sir Graham Brady (Altrincham and Sale West), Christian Wakeford (Bury South), Mary Robinson (Cheadle) and James Grundy (Leigh).
Updated
Boris Johnson's press conference - Summary and analysis
There was one obvious question that Boris Johnson was going to be asked at that press conference … and he did not have an answer. By one count, he was asked five times. But he still refused to say what financial support would be available to Greater Manchester as it goes into tier 3 after midnight on Thursday, beyond the £22m that will be available for localised test and trace.
At his own press conference earlier, the region’s mayor, Andy Burnham, said another £60m had been on the table for business and employment support. He said he could not accept it, because he needed £65m as a bare minimum, but he said he assumed it would not be withdrawn. (See 4.36pm.)
MPs who were on a telephone briefing were left with the impression that Greater Manchester has only been offered the £22m. See Lisa Nandy’s tweet here, or Jim McMahon’s here. Johnson only mentioned the £22m. But he also made vague references to discussions continuing, and wanting to do more, implying that some of the £60m might be still available after all.
For anyone watching from Greater Manchester, the lack of clarity must have been infuriating. It was also baffling, given the centrality of money to the whole argument. What on earth was going on?
Perhaps it was just incompetence, although even with Johnson’s record that seems unlikely. Perhaps they were saving an announcement for later, but he would have said that. Perhaps Greater Manchester really is getting a punitive settlement but Johnson, with his habitual reluctance to deliver bad news, could not bring himself to be blunt.
More likely, I think, they probably haven’t decided - and the Treasury has yet to sign off on a settlement. On Friday they were evasive about quite what was on offer to Lancashire. This may just be usual Treasury parsimony, but it probably also reflects a recognition that no area going into tier 3 is coming out any time soon, and the Greater Manchester settlement may end up costing the taxpayer much more than by-the-month headline figures imply. It is probably a bigger public spending commitment than No 10 is willing to acknowledge.
Here are the main points.
- He refused to confirm that the £60m business support offered to Greater Manchester leaders earlier on the day was still available to the city. Despite being pressed repeatedly, he would not say what support would be on offer beyond £22m for test and trace.
- He claimed he could not agree to what Greater Manchester wanted because it would not be fair for it to get a more generous settlement than Liverpool or Lancashire, the two regions already in tier 3. He said:
What we couldn’t do is do a deal with Greater Manchester that was out of kilter with the agreements we had already reached with Merseyside and with Lancashire.
- He said the government was looking to review restrictions in care homes to allow people to visit their families. He said:
We do have to prevent the spread of the virus in care homes – you’ll remember what happened in the early part of the year – so we have had to take some steps to protect elderly residents from the possibility of infection by visitors.
But we are certainly looking at what we can do to review the circumstances that might allow people to visit their elderly relatives in extreme circumstances and on compassionate grounds.
Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, said he hoped the rollout of rapid Covid tests would make it easier to relax visiting rules for care homes.
- Van-Tam said he did not back calls for a short, national lockdown. He explained:
We are trying to walk a very fine line between getting the virus under control in areas where it is out of control and incurring the minimum amount of economic damage in doing so. In areas where it is out of control hard measures are needed.
But do I think right now it is inappropriate to insist on those similar hard measures in, for example, the south-west of England or Kent, where levels of the disease are very, very much lower than in the north of England. The national firebreak you talked about? No, I don’t think that is right. I don’t think that is consistent with the epidemiological picture that we are seeing.
That’s all from me for tonight.
My colleague Jessica Murray is taking over now.
Updated
In a response to the PM’s announcement the Conservative MP Chris Green, who represents Bolton West, wrote on Facebook:
Bolton has been through a far tougher lockdown than tier 3 and it didn’t work. The government believes that three weeks of closing pubs and soft play centres will make a dramatic difference. It hasn’t and it won’t.
I am disappointed that this lockdown has been imposed and I don’t believe the science supports this action. I think the health and economic impact will be damaging to our community but we have to do all we can to respect these rules since they have been imposed.
Johnson is wrapping up now.
He says he is walking a fine path. They don’t want to go back to a national lockdown, he says.
He says universities have done a great job at keeping the virus under control.
R is above one, he says. But it is not that much above one, he says.
And that’s it. The press conference is over.
I will post a summary soon.
Q: You have not visited the north-west. Will you apologise to businesses here? And is Greater Manchester getting the £60m?
Johnson says he is deeply sorry he is having to implement these measures.
His “door remains open” to talks with Greater Manchester. But any help has to be in line with what is available elsewhere.
Q: Would localised contact tracing have made a difference?
Van-Tam says you need both – a national system, with local back-up for the complicated cases.
Updated
Q: Is the argument for a circuit breaker lockdown stronger or weaker than when Sage argued for it in September?
Van-Tam says he has already explained why it would not be right for places like Cornwall or East Anglia.
And he says a lockdown like that works best when case numbers are low. They are higher now than they were.
Johnson says, again, that any support for Greater Manchester has to be in line with what Liverpool and Lancashire are getting.
Commenting on today’s death figures (see 4.44pm), Van-Tam says there is always a surge on a Monday or a Tuesday, after the weekend. That partly explains the big increase today. But the overall trend is up, he says.
Q: Can you confirm whether or not Greater Manchester is getting this £60m?
Johnson says the government cannot go beyond what was offered to Liverpool and Lancashire.
He reads out figures for the support already made available to Manchester.
He had to act today to protect health and save lives, he says.
Q: Why are Scotland and Wales doing circuit breakers, when they have lower rates than England?
Johnson says he rules nothing out. But he thinks the regional approach is right.
The way to make this work with tier 3 is for everyone to comply, he says.
If these measures are implemented, they will do the trick.
Q: Do we need to have full lockdowns regionally?
Van-Tam says we cannot afford “just to let our elderly die” and we cannot afford to let the NHS be overwhelmed.
Normally it takes two to three weeks between implementing measures and seeing an impact on case rates.
We cannot take our foot off the brake yet. We may need to push it further, he says.
Q: Will pubs in Manchester have to close without any extra business support?
Johnson says he has described some of the funds on the table. Other discussions will continue.
He says Greater Manchester has had £160m of extra funding.
The government will keep talking to Burnham, he says. He is grateful to him for getting behind these measures.
Q: Are these measures enough to make a difference?
Van-Tam says the tier 3 measures are a minimum. There are other things councils can do. They should consider them, he says.
He says what really matters is compliance.
Q: Has the 10-day delay made a difference?
Van-Tam reads out some figures for changes in the case rate. They are from the period 1-7 October, and then the period 8-14 October. They are the cases amongst the 60-plus group, per 100,000.
He says he hopes the figures indicate how much worse the situation has been getting.
Manchester: from 302 to 326
Salford: from 164 to 287
Wigan: from 207 to 399
Updated
Q: Does England need a short, national lockdown?
Van-Tam says he hopes his slides showed that Covid is a problem for the whole country.
But he does not think it would be right to impose those hard lockdown measures in places like the south-west where the rates are very low.
And the NHS is under less pressure in those places, he says.
- Van-Tam says he is not backing short, national lockdown now, because that would not be right for some areas.
Johnson says government could not offer Greater Manchester more than Liverpool or Lancashire
Q: Are you withdrawing the extra £60m offered to Greater Manchester? And what do you say to Andy Burnham, who says you are grinding down poor communities?
Johnson says he bitterly regrets any restrictions causing damage to people’s businesses and people’s lives.
Burnham is right in what he says about the endurance shown by Greater Manchester, he says.
Johnson says the £22m mentioned is additional to other support. The government is willing to consider that, he says. But he says the government has spent £190bn on Covid already.
Greater Manchester will have access to other funds, in particular for test and trace.
But he could not do a deal with Greater Manchester that was “out of kilter” with what was on offer to Liverpool and Lancashire.
But he says he is grateful to Burnham for saying he will urge compliance.
Updated
Johnson says the government is reviewing the circumstances in which people can visit elderly relatives in care homes.
But he says he knows this has been “wretched” for people.
Van-Tam says this has been very distressing. But when this virus gets into care homes, it can inflict “massive mortality” very quickly.
He says he hopes the rapid-testing pilots will allow the rules to be relaxed.
But for now it is a very difficult situation indeed, he says.
Johnson confirms that care homes will get priority for those tests.
Updated
Johnson is now taking questions from members of the public.
Q: How many places will have to be in tier 3 before you go for a national lockdown?
Johnson says he is trying to avoid that. He will not rule anything out. But this time around the spread of the disease is very varied. That is why regional approaches are best, he says.
Updated
From the Labour MP for Oldham West and Royton, Jim McMahon
Discussing with the Health Secretary is over; too much of this is about politics and not people
— Jim McMahon MP (@JimfromOldham) October 20, 2020
Confirmed;
£22m (£8pp) for contact tracing, local comms
£55m for business and worker support - now off the table
£TBC for councils as part of local gov next tranche allocation
Johnson confirms Greater Manchester going into strictest tier 3 from Friday
Johnson is speaking again.
- Johnson says Greater Manchester will go into tier 3 restrictions just after midnight on Thursday night. The regulations will be laid out in parliament on Thursday.
He summarises the rules. Baseline tier 3 rules apply, but betting shops, casinos, bingo halls, adult gaming centres, and soft play areas are all closing too.
Updated
And here is heat map for Greater Manchester.
Van-Tam is now showing heat maps. These show how the virus spreads, by region and by age group week by week. The colours show that once the virus starts among one age group, it spreads to older people.
Here is the 12 October chart.
And here is the chart for now.
Updated
Here are case figures for the north of England.
Updated
Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, is showing slides explaining the Covid situation.
Here is a slide from 12 October, showing the prevalence of Covid, on the left, and the extent to which it is increasing, on the right. It is the slide for over-60s, the group Van-Tam says worries them most.
And here are the figures for now.
Updated
Boris Johnson's press conference
Boris Johnson is starting his press conference now.
He says the countries doing best against Covid around the world are adopting local and regional measures.
Greater Manchester council leaders were getting details of the government’s plans while the Andy Burnham press conference was still going on.
From the Daily Mirror’s Pippa Crerar
NEW: Matt Hancock has just told Greater Manchester MPs they'll get £22m package (£8 per head) - and that's it.
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) October 20, 2020
I'm told Tory MPs on call, including William Wragg, "kicking off" at Health Secretary.
👀 Surely there must be more support for biz coming?
From the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg
This is more than messy now... Andy Burnham getting applauded by members of the public in Manchester, he + local leaders finding out from their phones during press conf what the govt is actually planning for the region on TV, visibly furious at what's happened
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) October 20, 2020
From Newsnight’s Lewis Goodall
Am told that GM MPs have been told that Greater Manchester will only get £22m- little more than a third of the £60m they had put on the table. Clearly the question ministers will have to answer is why £60m was appropriate earlier today but now isn’t?
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) October 20, 2020
Q: Are you worried that, having told people these rules will be unfair, they won’t obey them because of you. It could be like Dominic Cummings.
Burnham says the opposite is the case. He is telling people to obey the rules.
He says he is urging people to do the right thing.
And, on that note, he has wrapped up the press conference.
Boris Johnson is due to hold is own press conference at 5pm.
At his press conference a reporter suggested to Andy Burnham that, given the gap between the government and Greater Manchester was relatively small, that suggested he was “showboating”, and just boosting his standing ahead of next year’s elections.
At that point several people in the crowd watching shouted: “Rubbish.”
Burnham did not accept the charge. He said £5m may not be much to the government, but it is to Greater Manchester. And he said you should consider the things the government has been willing to spend money on.
Updated
UK reports record 21,300 new cases and 241 deaths
The government has updated its coronavirus dashboard. Here are the key figures.
- The UK has recorded 21,330 more coronavirus cases. This is the highest daily total, excluding a day when the numbers were inflated by the addition of past cases, and it’s an increase of more than 2,500 (or 13%) on the total for yesterday (18,804).
- The UK has recorded 241 further deaths. That is the highest daily figure reported since 258 deaths were reported on 5 June but there is often a delay in the reporting of deaths over a weekend.
Commenting on the death figures, Dr Yvonne Doyle, medical director of Public Health England, said in a statement:
The trend in deaths is rising sharply.
Tragically we know that older people and those with underlying health conditions tend to suffer more if they become unwell.
We all have a responsibility to follow the restrictions to help stop the virus spreading to those who are at greater risk.
Updated
Burnham says it would be wrong for government to now withdraw £60m offer
Burnham says this came down to a small amount of money. That was easier for the government to find than for Greater Manchester to find. But they weren’t prepared to do this.
He says he does not think the government has worked out what the impact of tier 3 will be - how many people will end up sleeping rough.
But this is not over, he says. He says he now wants parliament to intervene.
If the government were to withdraw the £60m on offer, that would be “an act of very poor faith”, he says.
Burnham says he has doubts about whether closing the places the government wants to close will bring the virus down.
That is what we were facing - pain without the results.
I don’t think the government has yet brought forth a proposal to make its tier 3 proposal work.
Leese says government experts and Greater Manchester experts were united in thinking the government’s approach would not work.
Burnham says 80% of wages is a basic level of support.
(The new government furlough scheme pays 67%.)
Burnham says government offer was 'deliberate act of levelling down'
Burnham is now taking questions.
Q: What happens next?
Burnham says he thinks they will impose tier 3.
It was not about what they wanted. It was about what they needed, he says.
The government should realise that, if they are asking people to close down places of work, they have to fully support them.
The ‘whatever it takes’ attitude from earlier this year has gone, he says. Now it is ‘you’ll get what we give you’.
Q: Is support still available?
Burnham says the government put £60m on the table.
He suggests he would be surprised if they now withdraw it.
The government said they were committed to levelling up.
What we’ve seen today is a deliberate act of levelling down.
Updated
Elise Wilson, the leader of Stockport council, says the council leaders went into this in good faith. But the government does not really care. They were just sticking to their agenda, she says.
Paul Dennett, the mayor of Salford, says other councils are fully behind the Greater Manchester proposals.
He says they went into the talks in good faith. They took an evidence-based approach. It is “really disappointing” the government will not back their proposals.
It is “really sad” that the “reasoned, logical and evidence-based approach” has not been accepted.
Sir Richard Leese, the Manchester city council leader, says the government did not provide evidence that shutting bars would stop the spread of the virus.
Councils provided an alternative plan, he says.
He says twice the government implied it would agree to what Greater Manchester wanted. But twice it was let down.
He says council leaders have still not had anything in writing about what is proposed.
Burnham says he is calling on parliament to intervene.
MPs should decide what a fair offer is, he says.
This is not just a matter for Manchester; other parts of England face being placed in tier 3.
So parliament needs to decide what is fair, he says.
He ends by urging people in Manchester to follow the rule and public health advice and “please look out for each other”.
Burnham says £65m demanded by Greater Manchester was 'bare minimum'
Andy Burnham has arrived for his open-air news conference. He has been joined by some Greater Manchester council leaders.
He says people in Greater Manchester have already been under restrictions for three months.
People are struggling. To accept further restrictions would lead to more hardship and homelessness.
The people most affected by tier 3 rules would be people like bookies, taxi drivers, and people in pubs - people on low incomes.
But this is a city that has never just walked on by, and never will, he says.
The region proposed measures to support those on low incomes.
It would have cost £15m per month, he says. This was support to top up the furlough, because people cannot live on two-thirds of their wages.
This would have cost £90m by the end of the financial year, he says.
They were prepared to lower it to £75m, and then to £65m.
That was a bare minimum, he says.
But the government would not agree. It just walked away, he says.
He says Greater Manchester is still willing to do a deal. But it cannot do on on the terms offered.
Updated
From the Labour peer Stewart Wood, a former No 10 adviser to Gordon Brown
The thing that best explains the Govt’s intransigence in its #Covid negotiations with Manchester: that it knows Tier 3 is coming to every region (a de facto winter national lockdown, arrived at incrementally) & it knows today’s negotiated deal will become tomorrow’s baseline.
— Stewart Wood (@StewartWood) October 20, 2020
Public Health Wales has recorded 1,148 more Covid cases and 10 further deaths. The details are here.
That is the highest daily total for new cases. Yesterday there were 626 new cases, a week ago today there were 764 new cases and two weeks ago today there were 425 new cases.
Andy Burnham's press conference
Andy Burnham is about to hold a press conference.
Here is my colleague Josh Halliday’s story about the breakdown of talks between Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, and the government over plans for the region to be placed under the strictest tier 3 restrictions.
There have been three further Covid-19 linked deaths reported in the last 24-hour reporting period in Northern Ireland and 913 new cases of the virus, the Department of Health has announced. The details are here.
Yesterday there were six deaths and 820 new cases. A week ago today there were seven deaths and 863 new cases.
NHS England has recorded 134 more coronavirus hospital deaths. There were 57 in the north-west, 34 in the north-east and Yorkshire, 17 in the Midlands, nine in the south-west, seven in London, seven in the east of England and three in the south-east.
This is the highest daily figure on this count, during this wave of the virus, by some distance. Yesterday the figure was 76, a week ago the figure was 87 and two weeks ago the figure was 50.
The details are here.
Collapse of Greater Manchester talks 'sign of government failure', says Starmer
Sir Keir Starmer says the collapse of the government’s talks with Greater Manchester is “a sign of government failure”. In a statement he went on:
The Conservatives have been treating local communities, particularly in the Midlands, north-west and north-east, and their leaders with contempt.
Labour recognise the need for stricter public health restrictions. However, that must be accompanied by extra financial support.
Labour will continue to support Andy Burnham in the fight for people’s jobs, lives and livelihoods.
Updated
According to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, government sources are claiming that the talks with Greater Manchester collapsed because Andy Burnham was “too proud” to do a deal. Greater Manchester sources say that’s not true.
This is messy.
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) October 20, 2020
1. Originally GM submitted bid for 90m to be able to keep paying staff whos jobs on hold equivalent of furlough until end financial year, based on estimates they had done
2. This morn they discussed 75m with officials, govt wanted to offer 55m but mood was OK
3. PM raised offer to 60m in call with Burnham, but he felt couldn't accept it as wdn't be enough to pay wages of low paid at level he had promised
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) October 20, 2020
4. So Tier 3 being imposed, with no deal yet on the cash and final offer likely to be under 60m
5. Govt source says ‘Other local leaders in GM were more reasonable and constructive but Burnham was too proud to make a deal.’
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) October 20, 2020
6. GM source says there was 'unanimity' on their side, and govt was 'trying to grind us' into accepting a deal that was too low
7. Govt was worried about setting precedent and giving more cash to GM than any other part of the country - bear in mind talks ongoing with other regions that could face tighter restrictions
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) October 20, 2020
8. This is not a happy episode for either side
9. Expect more from PM + Burnham later
But in sum - after 10 days of talks (of a kind) and billions and billions spent during this crisis, it is quite something that the deal fell over down to a gap of 5 million - importantly, that figure is not disputed by either side
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) October 20, 2020
(A lot of people think journalists should not report derogatory comments from anonymous sources. And ideally we shouldn’t. But some organisations - not just in politics - will only brief on this basis, and Boris Johnson’s Downing Street operation does this a lot. If you want to know what people are saying, unattributable quotes can have their uses. You might not know exactly where the quote is coming from, but normally it’s not hard to guess.)
UK-EU trade talks remain suspended following latest Frost/Barnier call
Over the last few days the government has been engaged in simultaneous talks with Greater Manchester over tier 3 and with Brussels over the UK-EU trade talks. It did not strike a deal with Greater Manchester, and the talks with the EU remain deadlocked too.
Last Friday, No 10 said the trade negotiations were off. Since then Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, and David Frost, his UK counterpart, have been talking. It is widely assumed the talks will resume soon, not least because both sides want a deal, and the contours of a potential agreement are clearly visible.
But it’s not happening yet. Frost and Barnier spoke again today and after the call Barnier posted this on Twitter, effectively confirming the deadlock continues.
🇪🇺🇬🇧 I spoke again to @DavidGHFrost today. My message: we should be making the most out of the little time left.
— Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) October 20, 2020
Our door remains open.
And No 10 released a statement saying:
Lord Frost and Michel Barnier had a constructive discussion. The situation remained as yesterday, and they will remain in contact.
On Friday Downing Street said: “Only if the EU fundamentally changes its position will it be worth talking.” Sources claim that is still the position.
Updated
Government suffers huge defeat in Lords on internal market bill
In the House of Lords the government has suffered a huge, but essentially symbolic, defeat on the internal market bill.
Peers backed by 395 votes to 169 - a majority of 226 - a regret amendment to the second reading motion, criticising the provisions in the bill that would allow ministers to override the Brexit withdrawal agreement, in breach of international law.
The vote won’t stop the bill, or even change any of its provisions. But it signals to the government that there is almost no chance of it getting through its remaining stages in the House of Lords without fundamental changes.
Peers almost never vote to block a bill at second reading. But a regret amendment means they are only passing it with reservations. They are only approved in the Lords rarely.
The amendment, tabled by Lord Judge, a former lord chief justice, said, as an amendment to the motion that the bill be read a second time “but that this house regrets that part 5 of the bill contains provisions which, if enacted, would undermine the rule of law and damage the reputation of the United Kingdom”.
Thirty-nine Conservative peers voted against the government, including Lord Keen, the former advocate general for Scotland who resigned over the bill last month.
The Constitution Unit says this is the biggest government defeat in the Lords since 1999.
HUGE defeat in the House of Lords on the #InternalMarketBill - we believe the biggest since Lords reform in 1999
— Constitution Unit (@ConUnit_UCL) October 20, 2020
395 peers opposed the government, just 169 supported, a margin of 226. Biggest prior defeat was by 191 on the Counter-Terrorism Bill in 2008https://t.co/fBJKN9l5Bp
Updated
Jenrick blames Burnham for breakdown of talks
Here is the full statement that Robert Jenrick, the communities secretary, has put out.
I’m disappointed that despite recognising the gravity of the situation, the mayor [Andy Burnham] has been unwilling to take the action that is required to get the spread of the virus under control in Greater Manchester and reach an agreement with the government. I have therefore advised the prime minister that these discussions have concluded without an agreement.
Greater Manchester leaders reject £60m business support offer as inadequate
Greater Manchester leaders are understood to have rejected an offer of £60m in business support from the government just three hours before Boris Johnson is due to hold a Downing Street press conference.
Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, is understood to have told the communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, that the £60m offer is not sufficient, following a morning of frantic behind-the-scenes negotiations.
The £60m lump sum is £15m short of a proposal set out by Burnham earlier today, just before the midday deadline set by Jenrick on Monday night. The decision to reject the government offer was made in a Zoom call with Greater Manchester leaders.
The £60m would be in addition to £22m for test and trace and enhanced enforcement, which is proportionate to the per capita deals struck by Merseyside and Lancashire authorities last week.
It is understood Greater Manchester leaders had reduced their initial £75m figure to £65m and thought this was a reasonable shift. However, ministers then came back to offer £60m, which was rejected.
Updated
Greater Manchester tier 3 talks break down without agreement
The talks with Greater Manchester leaders about a tier 3 lockdown have broken up without a deal, my colleague Heather Stewart has tweeted:
NEW: Jenrick tells the PM discussions with Greater Manchester have broken up without a deal:
— Heather Stewart (@GuardianHeather) October 20, 2020
“I’m disappointed that despite recognising the gravity of the situation, the mayor has been unwilling to take the action that is required to get the spread of the virus under control."
Tier 3 restrictions will now be imposed for 28 days - means closing all pubs and bars, unless they are serving substantial meals; betting shops, casinos, bingo halls, adult gaming centres, and soft play areas.
— Heather Stewart (@GuardianHeather) October 20, 2020
Wales might need further firebreak lockdown in new year, minister admits
Another circuit breaker lockdown may have to be introduced in the new year, the Welsh government has said.
Ken Skates, the economy minister, said the hope was that a temporary lockdown starting on Friday would bring the R number down to 0.8. He said:
That would, in itself, buy us enough time, give us the headroom, to get through to Christmas and the new year.
But we could not rule out the possibility of another firebreak if transmission rates increase dramatically over the Christmas period.
Skates also said a new national set of restrictions will be introduced in Wales once this two-week circuit breaker is over. At the moment parts of Wales with high Covid levels are in local lockdown while others have more freedom. Skates said a new national scheme would be brought in at the end of the temporary lockdown.
Matt Hancock, the health secretary, will make a statement on coronavirus in the Commons at 7pm, it has been announced.
This is likely to about the plans for Greater Manchester to move into tier 3 restrictions. Assuming a deal has been reached by 5pm, which is still not inevitable, Boris Johnson is expected to give details at his press conference. But MPs have complained about announcements not being made in parliament, where they can question the minister, and a Commons statement would counter claims that parliament was being snubbed.
*Breaking* 🚨
— Labour Whips (@labourwhips) October 20, 2020
There will be a statement at 7pm today:
Covid-19 update - @MattHancock / @JonAshworth
Turning back to Scottish independence for a moment (see 12.16pm), the leading psephologist Prof Sir John Curtice has written a blog about the latest polling on this topic which is invaluable for anyone following this issue closely. It’s here, on the What Scotland Thinks website.
Here are some of his main points.
- Curtice says nine polls in a row have put Yes ahead which is “a wholly unprecedented picture” - even if it is too early yet to know whether the Ipsos MORI poll putting support for independence at 58% (a record high) was evidence of a trend and not just an outlier.
- He says that whereas in 2014 men were much more likely to favour independence than women, that gender gap has disappeared, and now women are just as enthusiastic.
- He says that polls now suggest people in their teens or 20s are strongly in favour of independence, in a way they weren’t six years ago. He says:
On average, polls conducted since June have put support for independence among those aged 16-24 as high as 79% – compared with 56% among those aged 35-44 and just 33% among the over 65s. Most of those in the pollsters’ youngest age group of under 25s were too young to vote six years ago – and if those who enter the electorate anew continue to support Yes so heavily in future years then, other things being equal, it will with every passing year become gradually more difficult for No to win any second referendum ballot.
- He says people who do not have a firm view about independence - roughly a quarter of voters - are particularly likely to be pro-EU, and particularly likely to see how Brexit evolves before making up their minds on independence.
- He says even among those who voted Yes in 2014 only 30% think an independent Scotland should keep the pound in the short term before launching a separate currency - despite this being the SNP’s policy.
From Newsnight’s Lewis Goodall
NEW: I understand that a second phone call between the PM and Andy Burnham has been arranged and they’re talking around now. It seems an offer was made to Greater Manchester in the first call which Burnham has discussed with GM leaders and is now giving PM their view about it.
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) October 20, 2020
Welsh support package for business most generous in UK, Welsh government claims
The Welsh government has insisted that its short, sharp “circuit breaker” will give businesses the best chance of a buoyant Christmas and suggested England could be heading for a longer lockdown if its tier system does not work.
The Welsh economy minister, Ken Skates, also said it had managed to bring the support of the country’s businesses, local authorities and trade unions along with it, rather than becoming embroiled in the sort of stand-off the UK government faces with Greater Manchester.
Skates said £300m would be made available to help businesses through the firebreak – the most generous package in the UK, he claimed.
The minister said this amounted to £100 per person in Wales and contrasted this with the £8 per head for local authorities heading into tier three in England. Skates said:
Elsewhere, restrictions are being imposed for four weeks, for six weeks and potentially longer. If the tier system in England doesn’t operate correctly they may have to revisit that entire scheme – who knows how long businesses may be affected? Here in Wales we are taking the responsible course of action, which is a short, sharp firebreak.
We haven’t had a 10-day standoff with any part of Wales. We have brought businesses, local authorities, trade unions with us.
Updated
NHS England has today announced £15m for the “rapid assessment and treatment” of staff with mental health problems this winter, in recognition of the toll exacted on them by battling the coronavirus pandemic.
Revealing the investment, while giving evidence to the Commons health committee, Claire Murdoch, NHS England’s national director for mental health, said priority would be given to Covid hotspots such as Merseyside and Lancashire. She said:
We’ll be looking at those high pressured hotspot areas first to make sure that, in a sense, although this rollout will be rapid, we’ll start where we think it’s needed most.
In addition, we will be setting up a highly specialist national service for a small number of staff, who perhaps have very complex trauma, perhaps some of my critical care colleagues.
Responding to the announcement, Dame Donna Kinnair, the Royal College of Nursing chief executive and general secretary, said:
We welcome this further support that recognises what healthcare staff have had to put up with, and hope this is the only the start of a sustained focus on the wellbeing of nursing staff. Many of the factors that worsen the wellbeing of the workforce existed before Covid-19 such as unhealthy working patterns and a severe shortage of staff.
Updated
Updated
Government deal with Greater Manchester 'more likely than not', says senior Tory
Sir Graham Brady, a Greater Manchester MP and the chairman of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee, is on the World at One one.
He says his understanding is that the Greater Manchester leaders and the government are still trying to reach an agreement on the terms under which the region could enter the strictest tier 3 restrictions.
The noon deadline was extended, he says.
He says the dispute is just about money.
And he says he thinks it is “more likely than not” that there will be an agreement.
Scottish government to provide more funding for meals for children over school holidays
Scottish councils are being given another £10m to provide free meals over the holidays to children eligible for free school meals, after pressure from Scottish Labour and calls from campaigners including the footballer Marcus Rashford.
Shirley-Anne Somerville, the Scottish social security secretary, said the money would allow the country’s 32 councils to continue offering free meal vouchers, cash sums or food parcels over the Christmas, February and Easter holidays.
It would also reimburse those councils which provided free meals during the October holidays, and would help around 156,000 children, she said.
The previous scheme, introduced earlier this year, was criticised by anti-poverty campaigners because of significant differences in the way councils provide the meals. Some gave out vouchers for specific stores, others provided cash cards or meal packs, while the sums provided varied across the country.
Councils would also be given another £18m to help councils tackle financial crises for the worst off, to meet housing, fuel and food costs, through the Scottish welfare fund set by the Scottish government.
Last week Richard Leonard, the Scottish Labour leader, had urged the Scottish government to reinstate the free meals funding, which had lapsed after the summer holidays, echoing similar calls from Rashford.
“There is no time for reviews or prevarication. Hard pressed and poverty-stricken families need this support over free school holiday meals now,” he told the Daily Record.
Welsh government criticises Sunak for refusing to let Cardiff fund early start of job scheme in Wales
At a briefing in Cardiff Ken Skates, the Welsh economy minister, said the Welsh government was pressing the Treasury to let its job support scheme start early in Wales, from this Friday, to help people affected by the two-week “firebreak” lockdown. But so far the UK government is refusing, he said.
Skates told journalists:
As the first minister explained yesterday, we pressed the chancellor to bring forward the new jobs support scheme to ensure that all those working for businesses which are forced to close would receive financial support for all employees and would not have access to schemes during this firebreak.
We even offered to make up the difference between funding for each employee under the job retention scheme and the job support scheme.
But the UK government has so far refused this offer, we are continuing to press the Treasury to do all they can to ensure employees and employers in Wales will benefit from UK government support during the firebreak to the maximum possible extent.
On Brexit, No 10 also said that David Frost, the PM’s chief EU negotiator, would speak to his European counterpart, Michel Barnier, at 2pm.
The prime minister’s spokesman restated the government’s position that it is willing to restart trade talks if the EU agrees to compromise.
Updated
Boris Johnson to hold press conference this afternoon, following talks with Burnham about Greater Manchester
The Downing Street lobby briefing has just finished. We did not find out whether or not the government has reached agreement with Greater Manchester, but Boris Johnson has been speaking to Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester within the last hour and Johnson will be holding a press conference this afternoon at 5pm, where he will provide an update on what has - or has not - been decided for the region.
The fact that the two men have been speaking suggests that the two sides were at least close to an agreement as the noon deadline approached. It is unlikely that the PM would have scheduled a call if he thought it was going to be a waste of time.
Updated
Covid hospital numbers in Scotland up by almost 10% in 24 hours, Sturgeon confirms
Another 15 people have died in Scottish hospitals after contracting Covid-19, with the numbers in hospital with positive tests increasing by 70 to 824 during the last 24 hours, Nicola Sturgeon has announced.
Yesterday the figure for coronavirus patients in hospital was 754, so the numbers have risen almost 10% in 24 hours, the figures show.
The first minister also said 1,456 new cases had been reported overnight, including results from some tests delayed over the weekend, with the total number of positive tests reaching 11.4%. The number of people in intensive care also increased by eight, up to 69.
These figures are amongst the highest reported since late May and Sturgeon urged people to immediately seek Covid tests as soon as they showed suspicious symptoms, and not to delay for a day or two to see whether those symptoms continued.
In Treasury questions Abena Oppong-Asare, a shadow Treasury minister, asked what support was available for businesses that were not being forced to close due to local restrictions, but that could not trade properly. She said:
In regions facing tier 3 restrictions many businesses have been forced to close. In tier 2 regions many businesses, especially in hospitality, are open in name only - running up all the costs without the customers.
What does the government have to say to those businesses which realistically cannot operate and are not legally required to close?”
Jesse Norman, a Treasury minister, replied:
The answer to the question [Oppong-Asare] raises is, of course, that we are acutely aware of the financial costs on those businesses, as we are on businesses that have been forced to close. That is why we have put in place an evolving and comprehensive programme of support for business.
Leaked memo shows Tories in 'panic mode' over Scottish independence, SNP says
According to a Bloomberg story by Alberto Nardelli and Tim Ross, senior Tories, including the Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove, have been considering a 21-page memo exploring what the government can do to counter the rise in support for Scottish independence. It will make grim reading for Tory unionists. Here is an extract covering the analysis in the memo.
“If the SNP builds on this momentum then the endpoint could be a full-blown constitutional crisis or a second independence referendum,” the report said. “Either of these outcomes would consume significant political capital for the government” ...
One way of trying to break the link between independence and remaining in the single market is by “co-opting the EU into demonstrating that there is no viable pathway to renewed membership”, the report said.
Brexit has changed the game and makes the conventional argument against a rerun of the 2014 referendum - that it was a “once in a generation” vote - no longer effective, it said. “Put simply, there are not enough leave voters to convert to the ‘No’ side to make up for the movement of remain voters into the ‘Yes’ camp,” the report said.
And this is what the story says about the recommendations in the memo.
The memo offers three steps the UK government could take to mitigate the pressure: “New accommodation, new constitutional settlement, and cooperation rather than confrontation.” It describes the first step as a “velvet no” that rejects a referendum in the short term and buys time.
The government should instead focus on a “four nations, one country” policy by transferring further financial powers, differentiation on policies connected to the EU vote, such as immigration.
Commenting on the report, the SNP’s deputy leader at Westminster, Kirsten Oswald, said:
This leaked memo reveals that the Tories are in panic mode because people in Scotland know Boris Johnson’s government can’t be trusted to act in Scotland’s interests.
Updated
Deadline set by No 10 for deal with Greater Manchester passes - with no word yet as to whether agreement reached
The noon deadline set by the government for an agreement with leaders of Greater Manchester on its move into tier 3 restrictions has passed. But there is no word yet as to whether or not there has been a deal.
Sunak accuses Labour of favouring 'rolling programme of national lockdowns'
During Treasury questions Anneliese Dodds, the shadow chancellor, claimed that not implementing a short “circuit breaker” national lockdown (which Labour is advocating) could cost the economy £110bn. She said the figure was based on IMF analysis, taking into account the changes in behaviour people would make if they were worried about getting Covid, and the knock-on impact on the economy. She asked Rishi Sunak what he estimate was of the cost of not having a circuit breaker.
Sunak said Labour wanted “a rolling programme of national lockdowns”. That would cause unnecessary pain and suffering in places where the prevalence of the virus was low, he said.
Sunak rejects claim Greater Manchester just being offered £8 per head
Afzal Khan, the Labour MP for Manchester Gorton, told Rishi Sunak at Treasury questions that people in Manchester were suffering. He said last night the government offered the region just £22m in return for it going into tier 3. That was just £8 a head, he said. He said other places were given twice as much.
Sunak said Khan was mistaken in what he said about the support available. He said £8 a head was the national baseline for regions entering tier 3. But extra sums were offered to Greater Manchester on top of that, he said. He said that offer was still available to the region.
Rishi Sunak takes Treasury questions in Commons
In the Commons Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, has just started taking Treasury questions.
He says conversations with Greater Manchester are continuing, and that it is being treated the same as other regions. He dismissed a claim from Labour’s Andrew Gwynne, who represents Denton and Reddish in Greater Manchester, that the region was being treated unfairly.
UPDATE: Here is the question.
"Why does this government hate Greater Manchester?" asks Labour's Andrew Gwynne, who says region was offered less than the communities secretary "granted to his own town centre"
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) October 20, 2020
Chancellor Rishi Sunak says we need people "acting in a constructive spirit"https://t.co/NVFEZRmj7E pic.twitter.com/qtZy2LaXWD
Updated
Children and young people are at risk of becoming a “lost generation” because of the UK government’s pandemic policies, members of Sage have warned. My colleague Amelia Hill has the story here.
Yesterday Downing Street claimed intensive care capacity in Greater Manchester was less than month away from being completely overwhelmed.
Prof Jane Eddleston, an intensive care consultant at the Manchester Royal Infirmary who is the region’s medical lead for the coronavirus response, has disputed that. She told Sky News:
We have seen initially an eight-fold rise in hospital admissions from the beginning of September through to the beginning of last week ...
I don’t think we are running out of beds. We have very detailed escalation plans. We have more capacity that can come onstream. We’ve protected a lot of capacity for our patients with non-Covid conditions. And so at the moment we are completely in control.
Updated
Pressure mounts on No 10 to extend free school meals holiday scheme
Pressure is mounting on Downing Street to support families entitled to free school meals throughout the holidays in England, with Labour writing to every backbench Conservative MP to press home the issue, my colleague Heather Stewart reports.
Ahead of a vote on a Labour motion on this tomorrow, the England and Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford, whose campaigning on this issue led directly to the government agreeing to fund food vouchers for poor children in England over the summer, has been tweeting.
Tomorrow MPs will vote on holiday provision -
— Marcus Rashford MBE (@MarcusRashford) October 20, 2020
I’ve spoken to a number of MPs who I know care. I’ve also spoken to MPs who were on free school meals...
If you don’t know if your MP is one of them, ask them, tag them:@SirGrahamBrady https://t.co/t1VdjFSDDR
Whilst I don’t agree with another sticking plaster method, these children do need protecting during the upcoming holidays.
— Marcus Rashford MBE (@MarcusRashford) October 20, 2020
If your MP doesn’t deem providing vulnerable children with vital food resources a priority then you must ask yourself why.
Have a good day everyone.
David Mellen, the Labour leader of Nottingham city council, said today that he expects to hold talks with the government later this week about his area moving into the strictest tier 3 restrictions. But the council was already acting to reduce the spread of the virus, he said.
I will make it clear that we want a package that properly protects local people, businesses, jobs and education, whether it’s for tier 2 or tier 3, and will need to speak to the government first about the details of this.
However, we have not waited for the government to act against rising Covid cases in the city - almost a week before government finally placed us in tier 2 we issued clear advice about not mixing indoors with people from other households unless they are in your support bubble.
This week once again we are taking the lead and are writing to supermarkets to ask them to reinstate an allocated hour for older and vulnerable people. We are considering other community facilities where this could also be reintroduced.
We have only just been placed in tier 2 and infection rates are coming down.
The Office for National Statistics figures published this morning (see 10.12am) also confirm that deaths are rising quickly.
Weekly deaths in England and Wales where Covid was mentioned on the death certificate peaked in the week ending 17 April, when 8,758 people from the virus.
After that weekly coronavirus deaths fell, reaching a low of just 78 in the week ending 4 September. Since then they have been rising again, doubling in a fortnight according to the most recent figures. Here are the statistics.
Week ending 11 Sept - 99 deaths
Week ending 18 Sept - 139 deaths
Week ending 25 Sept - 215 deaths
Week ending 2 Oct - 321 deaths
Week ending 9 Oct - 438 deaths
Last night Ben Houchen, the Conservative mayor of Tees Valley, posted a message on Twitter saying that he had been told by the government there were no imminent plans for his area to move into tier 3 restrictions, despite Matt Hancock, the health secretary, telling MPs that negotiations for this would soon start. (See 9.33am.)
After today’s statement, I spoke to Matt Hancock’s team and I was pleased that they confirmed what local leaders were told on Friday - that there are NO imminent plans to move our area to tier 3. https://t.co/ZTNIvNjGkG
— Ben Houchen (@BenHouchen) October 19, 2020
UK has now had 59,079 deaths involving Covid, latest figures show
The number of deaths involving Covid-19 has surpassed 59,000 in the UK as a whole.
Figures released by the Office for National Statistics this morning showed that 53,863 deaths had occurred in England and Wales as of 9 October 2020. The latest figures from the statistical agencies in Scotland and Northern Ireland put their Covid death toll at 4,301 and 915 respectively, making a UK total of 59,079.
Of the Covid-19 deaths to have occurred 51,118 were among residents of England and 2,671 were living in Wales.
The figures, although less up-to-date than the government’s daily figure, are higher because they involve all deaths where Covid-19 is mentioned on the death certificate whereas the government’s figure only includes those who died within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test.
The number of coronavirus deaths registered in England and Wales in the week to 9 October 2020 stood at 438, 4.4% of the total deaths in the two countries compared to 3.2% a week earlier.
This morning the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has announced that it is funding human challenge studies for Covid vaccines. These involve not just giving the vaccine to volunteers, but then deliberately exposing those volunteers to the virus.
In a statement explaining the value of these trials, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, said:
A safe, fully approved, and meticulously controlled human challenge model for Covid-19 that is conducted by experienced experts may help in the search for safe and effective vaccines.
First, for the many vaccines still in the mid-stages of development, human challenge studies may help pick out the most promising ones to take forward into larger phase 3 trials.
Second, for vaccines which are in the late stages of development and already proven to be safe and effective through phase 3 studies, human challenge studies could help us further understand if the vaccines prevent transmission as well as preventing illness.
Prof Peter Openshaw of Imperial College London, who is involved in the trials, told the Today programme that he was “quite optimistic” about the various vaccine trials taking place. He said:
I think there is light at the end of the tunnel, in that there are so many trials of vaccines going on under very, very well-controlled conditions.
I would be surprised if some of those vaccine studies don’t report this side of Christmas.
And of course some of those vaccines have been pre-purchased and pre-batched ready for distribution against the possibility that they are going to be found to be effective in the phase three trials.
So I think that that will be limited stocks of vaccine which are going to be available for the most high-risk people in the early part of next year.
But of course there won’t be sufficient vaccine to roll out a full vaccination programme; we need to take it stepwise and be cautious.
Updated
Steve Rotheram, the mayor of Liverpool city region, which is already subject to the tier 3 strictest restrictions, says he is exploring how the extra funding given to the area to compensate for the tighter rules can be used to help people not supported by the national government schemes. Taxi drivers and the self-employed could benefit in particular, he says.
There have been some questions about whether we can use some of the funding we have secured from the government to assist those who have forgotten by national schemes - specifically taxis drivers and the self-employed.
— Steve Rotheram (@MetroMayorSteve) October 20, 2020
In short: we are working on it, so watch this space. pic.twitter.com/3Sjr7EDSfT
In the Commons yesterday Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said further talks were planned this week with South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, the north-east and Teesside about those areas entering the strictest tier 3 Covid restrictions.
Last night Shane Moore, the independent leader of Hartlepool borough council, said that his response to any proposal of this kind would be “sod off”.
Apparently it was announced in the House of Commons earlier that there were talks happening in relation to #Hartlepool & wider #TeesValley going into Tier 3. This is untrue. No talks with us since update on Friday & if anyone suggests it to me this week they'll be told to sod off
— Shane Moore (@srmooreuk) October 19, 2020
Moore adopted much the same approach earlier this month, when the current restrictions were imposed on his town. The government just ignored his opposition.
Burnham says tier 3 will only work if it's stricter, and better funded, than government proposes
Here are some other lines from Andy Burnham’s interviews this morning. (See 9.01am.)
- Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, said current government plans could involve “levelling down” not “levelling up”, which is Boris Johnson’s stated goal. Burnham explained:
We’re trying to respond to a pandemic on the cheap, that’s how it feels.
It’s particularly relevant, isn’t it, when you then come to a regional lockdown, because by definition these are going to be divisive, and if you don’t fully fund them you are going to widen the divides in society.
The danger for me of underfunded regional lockdown is that it becomes an act of levelling down from a government which said it would do the opposite.
- He said for tier 3 restrictions to work, there would have to be funding to allow more businesses to close than under the tier 3 baseline rules envisaged by the government. He explained:
All of the experts - chief medical officer, chief scientific adviser, the deputy chief medical officer - every single one of them has said to us they are not certain tier 3 will work.
The only way it’s got a chance of working is if you fully fund it so that lots of things can close so that they can have the maximum impact.
The problem with the government strategy is it isn’t doing that, it’s trying to penny pinch on tier 3.
That’s the problem, I don’t think its own strategy will work. It’s not backing itself to make its strategy work.
- He rejected claims that he was engaged in political posturing, saying he had the support of Conservatives. He said:
I have the support of Conservative MPs here for what I am saying - it is not posturing.
- He said that, if the government imposed tier 3 unilaterally on Greater Manchester, he would accept that and not encourage law-breaking. He said:
Of course we wouldn’t break the law. We’ve never said that we would.
We would obviously have to accept that decision, in the end it’s the government’s prerogative.
- He said funding to help people shield - a plan proposed by the Manchester city council leader Sir Richard Leese - could be “part of the solution”.
Updated
Greater Manchester to put last-minute plan to Johnson as tier 3 deadline looms
Good morning. There are three hours to go until we hit the deadline set by the government for the end of talks with Greater Manchester leaders on a deal about moving the region into the very high alert level tier 3, which would mean it would be subject to the strictest Covid regulations. If there is no deal, the government is threatening to impose those rules unilaterally.
Here is an extract from the statement issued by Robert Jenrick, the communities secretary, last night.
There are now more Covid-19 patients in Greater Manchester hospitals than in the whole of the south-west and south-east combined. But, unfortunately, despite recognising the gravity of the situation, local leaders have been so far unwilling to take the action that is required to get this situation under control. I have written to local leaders this evening to make clear that if we cannot reach agreement by midday tomorrow then I must advise the prime minister that despite our best endeavours we’ve been unable to reach agreement. It’s not too late for local leaders to work with us to take action for the sake of the people of Greater Manchester.
Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has been giving interviews this morning. My colleagues Helen Pidd and Josh Halliday sum up the situation in their story this morning.
Burnham is speaking to Greater Manchester council leaders this morning and he said he would recommend that they send a counter-offer to the government. He said:
We’ve never been given a figure for that additional support. So what I will be proposing to the Greater Manchester leaders, when we meet this morning, quite early, is that we write to the government with what we think a fair figure is, given we have been under restrictions for three months and that has taken a real toll on people and businesses here.
The second thing we would need is full flexibility to support the people who we think are going to need to be supported under a tier 3 lockdown.
Some sort of resolution seems likely today, and we may well hear about it from Boris Johnson, who is rumoured to be planning an afternoon press conference.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: The ONS publishes its weekly death figures for England and Wales.
9.30am: The Commons health committee takes evidence from health professionals on staff burnout in the NHS.
11.30am: Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, takes questions in the Commons.
12pm: Downing Street is expected to hold its daily lobby briefing.
12.15pm: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, is due to hold its regular coronavirus briefing.
1.30pm: Mark Drakeford takes first minister’s questions in the Senedd (Welsh assembly).
Afternoon: Boris Johnson may hold a press conference. No 10 has not confirmed this, but it posted this on Twitter this morning - which is normally a sign a press conference is coming.
Want to ask a minister a question?
— UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) October 20, 2020
Go to: https://t.co/kLNGCTITL1 pic.twitter.com/T0jb4R9qr7
Politics Live has been doubling up as the UK coronavirus live blog for some time and, given the way the Covid crisis eclipses everything, this will continue for the foreseeable future. But we will be covering non-Covid political stories too, like Brexit, and when they seem more important or more interesting, they will take precedence.
Here is our global coronavirus live blog.
I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.
If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
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