Andy Burnham vs No. 10

Is Greater Manchester about to go into tier three restrictions? That’s the hope in government following a week of negotiations, a war of words playing out in the media and internal Tory division. Metro mayor Andy Burnham — known in some parts of the internet as the ‘king of the north’ — has been resisting pressure from No. 10 to move to ‘very high risk’, complaining that the financial support is lacking.

There is a determination in No. 10 to stick with the localised approach rather than move — as Burnham and Keir Starmer have suggested — to nationwide measures. To do that, the government is now offering extra funding and there’s a sense in Whitehall that the situation could be resolved sooner rather than later. 

Part of the government’s difficulty throughout the process is that the objections have not just been coming from Labour politicians alone.