Covid-19: North West UK refuses to submit to government plans
On a street in Liverpool on October 15, 2020. REUTERS / Phil Noble
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Faced with the exponential spread of the coronavirus, the United Kingdom has just raised the alert level for London and several regions of England.
From Saturday, millions of residents will be subject to new restrictions, but some regions especially in the north of the country refuse to submit to the plans of Boris Johnson's government.
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With our correspondent in London,
Muriel Delcroix
More than half of the population of England will therefore now live in a “high” or “very high” alert zone.
For London and 7 other regions this means a ban on meeting friends and family indoors, whether at home or in pubs or restaurants.
This is the only notable change for this level 2 that does not please anyone but seemed inevitable.
On the other hand, the real battle is being played out with the regions of the north-west which absolutely refuse to move to the highest and most restrictive level and which for the moment only concerns Liverpool.
Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, rejects restrictions he considers unfair: “
They ask us to stake the jobs, the homes of our inhabitants and a large part of our economy for a strategy whose effectiveness is put questioned by their own experts.
They are prepared to sacrifice jobs and businesses here to save others elsewhere.
We will never accept it…
”
► See also: Covid-19 in the United Kingdom: Johnson announces new restrictions, calls for discipline
The elected representatives of these economically disadvantaged regions are calling for more financial support from the government and say they prefer a short national reconfinement anyway.
The opposition Labor Party and many scientists are also pushing for this "circuit breaker" deemed more effective.
For the moment Boris Johnson and his Minister of the Economy are resisting, but could give in to the pressure as the All Saints holidays approach.
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