The government has been accused of valuing workers in the north of England less than their southern counterparts after extending the 80% furlough for the national lockdown but refusing to do the same for northerners last month, according to the leader of the first region to go into “tier 3” measures.
Steve Rotheram, the mayor of the Liverpool city region, the first area to be put into tier 3 on 14 October, tweeted: “Glad that the Government have finally done the right thing and maintained the 80% furlough — not the 67% they were offering Tier 3 areas across the North. Now we know for sure that the Government thinks workers in the North were worth 13% less than those in the South.”
Announcing England’s month-long shutdown on Saturday night, Boris Johnson extended furlough until December, with the government paying 80% of workers’ wages. Last month he refused to stump up more than two-thirds of the pay of hospitality workers across the north whose businesses were forced to close under tier 3 measures.
Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, said voters in the north would remember that less than a fortnight ago the government offered them a worse deal.
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