Keep up to date with all the big stories from across Greater Manchester in the daily Mancunian Way newsletter. You can receive the newsletter direct to your inbox every weekday by signing up right here.
Here's the Mancunian Way for today: Hello, In the latest string of leaked WhatsApp messages, Matt Hancock has been accused of ‘weaponising disabled children’s care’ after his aides discussed whether to withhold funding for a learning disability centre in Bury if a local MP rebelled against Covid restrictions.
The messages, obtained by the Telegraph as part of its Lockdown Files series, saw political aide Allan Nixon suggest to Mr Hancock that they needed to ‘dangle our top asks’ over some of the newest MPs who entered Parliament in 2019. The conversation, which came ahead of a vote on December 1, 2020 regarding the introduction of new Covid restrictions in England, then mentioned Bury North MP James Daly as a possible example of this.
Mr Nixon suggested: “James wants his Learning Disability Hub in Bury – whips call him up and say Health team want to work with him to deliver this but that’ll be off the table if he rebels.” “These guys’ re-election hinges on us in a lot of instances, and we know what they want.
Read more on manchestereveningnews.co.uk