"We will not surrender our constituents to hardship, nor our businesses to failure this winter..."
Salford has 126 new confirmed cases of coronavirus, bringing the cumulative total to 4,461, up from the previous day's 4,335.
Elsewhere in Greater Manchester, cases in Manchester rose to 12,247 (up from 11,853), followed by Bolton 6,077 (up from 5,958), Oldham with 5,437 (up from 5,326), Wigan 5,073 (up from 4,877), Rochdale 4,608 (up from 4,476), Tameside 4,000 (up from 3,878), Stockport 3,850 (up from 3,769), Trafford 3,454 (up from 3,361) and Bury 3,606 (up from 3,515)..
There have been no new virus-related deaths at Salford Royal Hospital.
Meanwhile, yesterday, at a press conference held with the Mayors of Greater Manchester (Andy Burnham), Liverpool City Region (Steve Rotheram), North of Tyne (Jamie Driscoll) and Sheffield City Region (Dan Jarvis), opposition was aired to Chancellor Rishi Sunak's package of job support measures under which employees of businesses forced to close under new restrictions will be paid 67% of their wages, while businesses themselves can claim up to £3,000 per month in grants.
The scheme is set to replace the furlough and self-employed schemes, beginning on 1st November, as the Government intends to announce a new tier system of restrictions for the country on Monday. It is not known yet whether Greater Manchester will fall into the third, and most stringent, tier.
At the press conference, all four Mayors spoke out against the proposals, with Andy Burnham calling on northern MPs to force a vote and oppose the Government's package of measures in Parliament...
"To accept the Chancellor's package as outlined yesterday would be to surrender our residents to hardships in the run up to Christmas and our businesses to potential failure or collapse, and we are not going to do that" he said.
"We also run the risk of severe redundancies across the north of England particularly with tier system in the north and the end of the furlough scheme at the end of this month" he added, estimating that 100,000 people are still on the scheme in Greater Manchester "Combine these things and there's going to be long term damage to the economy of Greater Manchester and the North of England."
The Chancellor's proposals were opposed on five grounds...
1. That the Government is proposing to only pay two thirds, or 67% of wages, when the furlough scheme nationally paid 80% of wages. For those who work in low paid hospitality jobs, in bars and restaurants, it would put them in "severe hardship" Burnham explained... "Given that the hospitality sector is most affected by local restrictions, to accept this would be to accept that hospitality workers are somehow second class citizens."
2. Although the new scheme begins on 1st November, the understanding is that no-one will be paid until December. If restrictions come in this week, it will mean that some people might receive no money for six weeks, again putting them into potential debt and hardship.
3. The package of support only deals with those business that have to close as a result of restrictions, but not companies that supply those businesses which could collapse. Burnham argued that even the grants the Government is offering closed businesses would not be sufficient to stop "multiple business failures in Greater Manchester and the North".
4. Noting the knock-on effects from pubs and bar closures to those who are self employed, like taxi drivers and security, Burnham argued that there was no recognition of these workers.
5. Burnham called for discretionary grants to help out those businesses, employees and workers who weren't covered by the Chancellor's package of support.
"The health measures, whatever they are, are linked to the financial things because we are trying here to get public buy-in to whatever the Government puts forward for Greater Manchester" said the GM Mayor "Our ability to do that is linked, of course, to the extent to which people are treated fairly when it comes to the impact the restrictions have on their lives."
Addressing the Government's stance on the package being 'non-negotiable' Burnham added that "I will not accept that...We will not surrender our constituents to hardship, nor our businesses to failure this winter."
He added that the Mayors were making a political appeal to MPs in the North of England to support their constituents and "use the muscle of the North in Parliament to say to the Government 'This isn't good enough; we need better than this if you want our support for the restrictions that are in the tiers in the North that you are putting to us'...We think the time has come for Parliament to express its view both on the restrictions and on the support package that goes with it because both are critical to getting that public buy-in to what we need to do ahead of the winter."
If the political challenge fails, Burnham added that he wouldn't rule out a legal challenge because "on what basis do we see that the lowest paid in our society can be treated differently from those on higher incomes?...Why do we accept that hospitality workers are somehow second class citizens and can be pushed around and treated in this way? Well I don't accept that...it's that serious...This goes to the heart of everything we care about, and just to nod along with the Government would be a dereliction of our public duty in the office that we hold.
"The North of England is staring at the most dangerous winter for years right in the face" he concluded "And we have to stand firm right now as representatives of our communities in saying that we will do whatever is in our power, in a respectful way but also in a proper way, to fight your corner and we are going to do that..."
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