Breaking: GM leaders told there will be no imminent decision announced to the house this morning in GM.

Here’s what I think is happening

- GM leaders in meeting with No 10
- No 10 briefing nationals that they’ve been told measures will be imposed
- not actually the case
- simultaneously a pissed off health department is briefing GM MPs no decision yet taken

I could be wrong on this, of course. But from someone in the leaders meeting:

"Ed Lister is saying it has to be sorted today but the decision is to made by others. And there will be no imminent decision or announcement made about GM in the house this morning."

And from someone in the MPs meeting, which overlapped with the end of the leaders meeting:

"Helen Whately: no decision has been reached on GM, discussions ongoing with the mayor. The SoS is really frustrated about the leaks. We want to work together to engage, makes it hard."

Another meeting will take place later with GM leaders, I'm told.

This is, to use the technical term, a shitshow.

More on what the MPs are being told.

Rising rates overall are worrying; and there's a lag on the infections travelling up the age brackets. "Even if we stopped everything today, we will continue to see hospitalisations increase for the next two to three weeks."

Let’s not kid ourselves here: govt is PILING pressure onto GM to accept and it’s likely to happen anyway. But they *haven’t actually imposed anything as yet*. (They don’t want to impose.)

Tory MPs now pushing back in the GM meeting. Want to know why the BBC is reporting were defo going into tier 3. Why are we finding things out on TV? Etc

I think we can surmise that the GM Tory MPs are not happy. Bearing in mind that a third of our MPs are Tory here - we’re not quite the blanket red map people think

*cracks knuckles*

Oh, finally from an MP (meeting might have just concluded): ‘The mood is angry and grim, not a single person came out in support of T3.’