statement written by John Urquhart, Harmony Party UK general secretary

The Conservatives have been at it again.

Not content with messing up a Brexit deal, they’ve shown they’re not even all that good at their own game: you would think corporatist liberals with a lifetime’s experience cutting deals in wood panelled rooms and the corridors of power would excel at deal-making, but the Tories can’t even do that right.

It was a simple enough job: provide a package of support for their own people in Greater Manchester. But the Conservatives are so partisan and so steered by ideology that they couldn’t bring themselves to see a Labour-led local government representing their own countrymen as being on the same side. Just £5mn of difference between the two sides – but the Tories couldn’t help themselves, and, hateful of any carrot to anyone who isn’t Them, they reached for the stick and imposed measures instead, going the authoritarian route yet again.

The support packages alongside the lockdown measures are crucial to the lockdown itself. Without the right support in place, people can’t self-isolate because their livelihoods will disappear – either because their business will fail, or because they fear their boss won’t let them take time off work. Taking time off – even with COVID-19 – has led to some employees facing disciplinary proceedings internally. This threat is grave: more than half of people aren’t self-isolating because the Conservative regime is too busy stuffing money into its friends pockets with sweetheart contracts for things we don’t really need or things that just don’t work.

Same old Tories. They’re not there for businesses. They’re not there for children. Are they there for anyone but themselves and their donors?