The full story from Robert Jenrick’s email on Monday night to Boris Johnson’s press conference
It was 10.12pm when Robert Jenrick’s bombshell landed in the inboxes of exhausted leaders in Greater Manchester. By that time on Monday, it had already featured on the 10 O’Clock News, with a clip filmed in Westminster having been given to broadcasters first.
The final line of Jenrick’s letter contained the crucial ultimatum: after ten days of negotiations, agree to the country’s strictest tier of Covid measures by noon on Tuesday or the prime minister would be told “no deal”. The implication was that tier 3 restrictions would be imposed unilaterally. “I thought: ‘Dearie me, what?!’” said Rochdale’s veteran council leader, Allen Brett. “I read it as: we’ve been naughty boys, ‘I’m going to report you to the headmaster’.”
