Greater Manchester Covid tier status standoff continues

It was designed to bring clarity but instead the government’s tier system of Covid alerts seems to have caused division. The Mayor of Greater Manchester and Number 10 still can’t agree on whether the region should be put under tighter Tier 3 rules. Andy Burnham has accused the Prime Minister of exaggerating the severity of the crisis in the area.

Today Mr Burnham said today he’d had ‘constructive talks’ with Boris Johnson’s chief strategic adviser – but he wants MPs to vote on financial help for all regions put into the strictest local lockdown, calling for an urgent debate in parliament next week.

In today’s other developments, a further 16,982 new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours. 67 deaths were reported. And the total number of deaths is now 43,646.