Covid: Wales to go into 'firebreak' lockdown from
Friday
Wales will
go into a "short, sharp" national lockdown from Friday until 9
November.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-54598136
People will
be told to stay at home and pubs, restaurants, hotels and non-essential shops
must shut.
Primary
schools will reopen after the half-term break, but only Years 7 and 8 in
secondary schools can return at that time under new "firebreak"
rules.
Gatherings
indoors and outdoors with people not in your household will also be banned.
First
Minister Mark Drakeford said the "time-limited firebreak" would be
"a short, sharp, shock to turn back the clock, slow down the virus and buy
us more time".
Without
action the NHS would not be able to cope, Mr Drakeford told a press conference.
But a UK
government scheme that will cover 67% of the wages of workers at firms forced
to close, due to start on 1 November, will not be brought forward to cover the
Welsh lockdown.
Chancellor
Rishi Sunak said that was because of "limitations in HMRC delivery
timescales", in a letter to the first minister.
Some
employees may be able to be re-furloughed, however.
Coronavirus: Burnham condemns late-night
ultimatum to Greater Manchester
Region’s mayor to meet local leaders as minister’s
noon deadline to agree to tier 3 curbs approaches
Helen Pidd
North of England editor and Josh Halliday
Tue 20 Oct
2020 08.02 BST
Andy
Burnham has accused the government of provocation after a minister issued a
late-night ultimatum via the media, threatening to put Greater Manchester under
the tightest restrictions if a deal is not reached by noon on Tuesday.
Robert
Jenrick, the communities secretary, warned the region’s mayor late on Monday
night that if they fail to agree to pub closures and a ban on household mixing,
then tier 3 measures will be brought in unilaterally.
He said he
would have to “advise the prime minister that despite our best endeavours we’ve
been unable to reach agreement”.
Burnham, who
insists he has cross-party backing among MPs and council leaders, said he was
meeting Greater Manchester’s leaders on Tuesday morning to come up with a “fair
funding framework” to compensate the region’s poorest workers, many of whom
will be unable to make a living under tier 3 restrictions.
“This is
about people who work in pubs, people who work in bookies, people who drive
taxis, generally the people who Westminster politicians ignore,” he said.
Speaking on
BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Burnham said: “A late-night ultimatum briefed to
the media was a slightly provocative move, but I’m not coming on to rise to
that. I’m going to try to be positive and respond and find a way forward.”
Jenrick’s
ultimatum said: “We have offered an extensive package of support for local
people and businesses, proportionate to the approach we have taken in the
Liverpool city region and Lancashire and in addition to the wider national
support.”
But Burnham
insisted: “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.”
Last week,
one Greater Manchester leader said there was a £62m gap per month between what
the government was offering and what they thought was necessary.
Burnham
asked for support from across the country, noting London had asked for support
for businesses and workers hit by the lower tier 2 restrictions imposed over
the last week.
He said: “I
don’t disagree with them and I support them in that call. But I hope people
will support us in recognising the position that we are in and all along this
has been about standing up for people and businesses which otherwise are going
to be seriously harmed by a lockdown which at this point in time is not fully
funded. And it’s really important to stress that this unites everybody in
Greater Manchester. This isn’t posturing. It commands the support of our MPs
and all of our council leaders.”
One of
Greater Manchester’s nine Conservative MPs told the Guardian on Monday that he
did not want to push constituents into “destitution”.
Christian
Wakeford, who was elected MP for Bury South in December, said while he was not
wedded to Burnham’s insistence that furloughed workers be paid 80% of their
wages, as during the first lockdown, there should be a “minimum floor”.
Wakeford
said: “If it’s not 80%, it’s no lower than a set amount, whether that’s minimum
wage or something else, so that we are not forcing people into destitution. I
appreciate the knock-on effect that has because you couldn’t just introduce
that for Greater Manchester, but I do think that’s an area that has unity
between Conservatives and Labour. I don’t want to be a member of parliament who
pushes someone into destitution so they can’t put food on the table just before
Christmas.”
He added:
“There needs to be that minimum floor, the threshold beneath which you know you
are not going to go, especially as we are approaching winter months. It’s one
thing saying 80% during the summer but when a lot more money is going on
heating your home we really do need to focus on that.”
Burnham
said he made no apology for fighting for a “fair financial framework” which
would benefit not just Greater Manchester’s 2.8m residents but the rest of
England too.
“We are
standing up not just for ourselves but everywhere. Because there is a very good
chance that every part of England will find themselves in tier 3 over the
coming winter,” he said.
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