Jim McMahon brands Covid-19 meeting with Government as "pointless"

Oldham West and Royton MP Jim McMahon

MP for Oldham West and Royton has called today's Covid-19 meeting between Greater Manchester leaders and the Government as "pointless".

There has been widespread anger and confusion from local MPs about the Tier process.

Jim McMahon tweeted this morning saying:

"The Covid-19 meeting with Government is over and it was absolutely pointless.

"No consultation, no evidence was shared on the likely impact of further measures, no economic analysis and no enhanced financial support

"Wouldn’t even tell us if GM is being placed in T3 lockdown!"

We find out later this morning whether Tier 3 restrictions will be placed upon Greater Manchester when Matt Hancock speaks in Parliament. 

Andy Burnham said he doesn't support placing GM in Tier 3:

“We won’t accept people having their jobs taken off them, their businesses taken off them without proper compensation and what I mean by that is 80pc furlough across the board,” Mr Burnham added.

“We would consider other routes – legal routes – where we could protect our many thousands of residents who are going to be left in severe hardship in the run up to Christmas.

“We would not just leave them in the lurch, we would try and support them and that would include any legal action we could take on their behalf.

“We might even consider some joint action in that space because we won’t let people just be sent to the wall.”

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