Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, delivered an excoriating appraisal of Boris Johnson’s government and the support it is willing to give to the north of England in an explosive press conference on Tuesday afternoon.
Addressing reporters in Manchester, Burnham said leaders of the authorities in Greater Manchester had originally wanted £90 million – £15 million a month until the end of the financial year – to protect incomes for people forced out of work.
Burnham said £65 million was the “bare minimum to prevent a winter of real hardship” over a “punishing” winter.
“That is what we believe we needed to prevent poverty, to prevent hardship, to prevent homelessness. Those were the figures that we had – not what we wanted – but what we needed to prevent all of those things from happening.
“But the Government refused to accept this and at 2pm today they walked away from negotiations.
“In summary, at no point today were we offered enough to protect the poorest people in our communities through the punishing reality of the winter to come.
“Even now, I am still willing to do a deal but it cannot be on the terms that the Government offered today.”
Here are some of the most telling moments from Burnham’s extraordinary press conference.
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