‘Time for independence?’ Manchester Council leader calls for northern breakaway amid coronavirus shambles

Sir Richard Leese made the tongue-in-cheek suggestion in response to rising cases

Independence here? Manchester (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

It has been a week when the gulf between the government in Westminster and political leaders in the north – and the people they represent – has never seemed wider.

Fury has followed Downing Street’s leaked decision to close pubs and restaurants in as yet undisclosed parts of the region in response to rising coronavirus cases.

Now, the leader of Manchester City Council has suggested one rather innovative way of dealing with the growing sense that London is not listening: independence for the north.

“Time for UDI [unilateral declaration of independence]?” pondered Sir Richard Leese in a tweet on Saturday morning.

The Labour leader put forward the (possibly tongue-in-cheek) suggestion after saying he now believed the government’s much-touted ambition to rebalance the country’s economy actually meant “tilting it south”.

It came as other leaders and metro mayors across the region said the government’s new rules – created without consultation – could shatter the economy of cities like Liverpool and Newcastle by putting tens of thousands of jobs at risk

Sir Richard’s own proposals for better dealing with the coronavirus crisis in Manchester - one of the country’s worst hit ities - are among those that have seemingly gone entirely unacknowledged by ministers.

In a statement released on Friday, he said evidence showed that closing pubs and restaurants could exacerbate the spread of the bug because people would simply meet in unregulated environments.

Instead, he called for greater powers to shut down establishments which did not follow new Covid-secure guidelines, and demanded test and tracing systems be hugely and quickly improved.

“Measures already taken by the government are having a seriously negative impact on the economy in Manchester,” he added. “Further measures risk posing an existential threat for enormous numbers of our businesses and the people who work in them…

“The health impacts of severely damaging the economy must be balanced against the health impacts of Covid-19. We believe the proposals submitted by Manchester and other Northern cities allow us to address both at the same time.”