Talks with North East leaders on tier 3 restrictions continuing, Downing Street confirms
Downing Street has said talks with local leaders in the North East on possible further restrictions are continuing.
Local leaders in the North East – as well as the North West and Yorkshire and Humber – are continuing talks with the Government over possible further restrictions, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman has said.
They added: “That is part of the effort that we are making to create the maximum possible consensus behind the more strict kinds of local intervention.”
The spokesman said under Tier 2 and 3 rules on household mixing people can still meet up for work meetings under certain circumstances.
“There is a specific exemption which says that people from different households can gather in indoor settings that are open for work purposes,” the spokesman said.
“The reason that is there is that there are some people such as the self-employed and freelancers who may not have a workplace to conduct business meeting that need to take place face-to-face.
“We would encourage people to use alternatives to work meetings where possible.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to hold a press conference where he is expected to outline the next steps for Greater Manchester this afternoon (Tuesday, October 20).
The region had been given a deadline of lunchtime today (October 20) to agree to a deal. The deadline has now passed.
Meanwhile a North East director of public health has said the region are fighting a losing battle on how long further restrictions can be held off.
Alice Wiseman, director of public health for Gateshead, told the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus: “Whilst we’ve still got the number of cases that we’ve got in our area, we know that we are fighting a losing battle in many ways in terms of how long we can hold off for further restrictions.
“So, ideally, I think it would have been that we would have got our house in order during the summer months, when the numbers were much lower.”