'You can't run a city by getting the mayor to ask Manchester United for a few quid!'

21 October 2020, 07:45

Andy Burnham is playing politics caller tells LBC

By EJ Ward

This is the moment Nick Ferrari responded to a caller's suggestion that Andy Burnham should ask Manchester United for millions of pounds to help fund Tier 3 restrictions.

Daniel from Mansfield spoke to LBC's Nick Ferrari, telling the radio host he thought Boris Johnson was right to move the Greater Manchester region into Tier 3 coronavirus restrictions.

The caller accused the Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham of "playing politics for his next election," amazingly the caller's idea to address the issue which caused talks to break down.

Daniel told LBC Manchester has "two of the richest football clubs in the country, in his city" and said the Mayor could have appealed to them for money.

Responding to the idea Nick Ferrari said: "I don't think you can run a city by having the elected mayor ask Manchester United for a few quid, can you?"

But the caller was not put off by this suggesting "the amount the city has done for United, it'd be nice to see one of those two teams give something back to help out."

Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposed the stringent Tier 3 rules when negotiations between ministers and local leaders broke down after more than a week, but only confirmed a fraction of the funds Manchester politicians wanted from Government.

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham accused the Prime Minister of "playing poker" with people's lives when a deal could not be reached on cash for the region to support them through the measures.

Mr 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.

They eventually reduced that sum to £65 million - which Mr Burnham described as the "bare minimum to prevent a winter of real hardship" - but ministers would only offer £60 million.