Bbc news row breaks out over labour mayor's 'political power grab'

Greater Manchester's Mayor has said that getting children back into classrooms should be a top priority. However, Andy Burnham told BBC Breakfast that the test and trace programme had

to be better to give parents the confidence to send their children back to school. But Mr Burnham was accused of "playing politics" by lashing out at the tracing system. Mr Burnham

said: "I'm somebody who has a Year 10 going into Year 11 in my home and I know how hard it's been for her and it's her GCSE year coming up. "You wouldn't

necessarily want to see students spending half of the week out of the classroom. "I think we do need to work together to try and get more kids back and if that includes face masks or

other measures, we're going to have to open our minds to that. "As I said before, politics aside, let's get the schools back as best we can but it will need changes from the

Government in other areas." READ MORE: BRITONS WOULD 'GO TO PRISON BEFORE BEING INJECTED' WITH COVID VACCINE BBC presenter Jon Kay asked: "You say politics aside but your

critics would say you're playing politics on test and trace and maybe this is kind of a power grab where you're trying to get hold of the system or at least point fingers as far

as the system is working at the moment, this is entirely political." Mr Burnham continued: "Honestly, not at all. We all need this to work. "To be fair to the Government they

have been listening and providing more data to authorities that has definitely got better in the last few weeks and the national system is working to a point. "What I say to them is

things need to be done to make it work properly. Responding to the Health Secretary's announcement that restrictions on social visits to homes in Greater Manchester, East Lancashire and

West Yorkshire will remain in place for a further week, a Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) spokesperson said: "The Mayor of Greater Manchester and leaders agreed on

Wednesday that the heightened restrictions should continue in the city-region for another week. "Alongside the continued measures, Greater Manchester will be taking further action

locally over the next seven days. Targeted enforcement will be taking place, such as mystery shoppers visiting pubs and restaurants to ensure they are complying and taking down

customer's details. "We will also continue to focus on communicating direct and simple messaging to the public, especially with younger people, to make sure it is clear there

should be no social visits to homes while these restrictions remain in place. "However, we also need the Government to improve the test and trace system. Ministers must ensure people

have the financial support to be able to immediately self-isolate and we need under-utilised national centre staff urgently redeployed to local areas."