NICOLA Sturgeon and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham will meet tomorrow to come to what he said was “a better dialogue, better lines of communication” after their war of words over the Covid-19 travel ban between Scotland and Salford.
Burnham had threatened legal action over the move, but speaking at a news conference in Manchester he said he was not trying to work against the Scottish Government, and said they all had to work in partnership and find ways of working “that are right for both sides”.
He said the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) had received more than 50 emails from people who had been affected by the ban.
They included a couple whose honeymoon to Scotland had been cancelled, a family who had to postpone the scattering of a loved one's ashes and a hotel that had lost 200 room nights.
And the mayor, who served in Gordon Brown’s cabinet, denied suggestions that his attack on the Scottish Government announcement was aimed at positioning himself for a potential Labour leadership challenge.
“I find it disappointing that issues of substance could just be dismissed in that way because it kind of suggests that what we're saying is valueless and it's all manufactured,” he said.
“I honestly don't think you can say that on the back of some of the information that I've given to you this afternoon, because this has had a real impact on people's lives. It's had a real impact on businesses.
“This is a big city that wants to get back to a degree of normality given the times we've been through. It's hard, it's had a real impact.”
Burnham said there were “real issues” that had to be considered: “We have our differences with the UK Government, but they have genuinely got in touch with us to discuss what they were planning to do beforehand, and where they have tried to put us under restrictions without support, we have said we don't think that is right, and the same obviously applies to the Scottish Government.
“So, I want to pursue another route, the political route … and that's obviously what we would seek to do tomorrow, to put in place better dialogue, better lines of communication, that clearly aren’t there at the moment.”
He said they had a situation where one of the boroughs of Greater Manchester was being hit by a travel ban imposed by the Scottish Government, when parts of Scotland had a “significantly higher case rate”, and they were entitled to ask why.
He added: “I think we, all of us have to work in partnership through this unprecedented period, and find ways of working that are right for both sides, particularly when the decisions of one devolved administration impact on another, and … we do need to find better ways of working.”
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