This letter is directed at the nine Conservative Greater Manchester MPs who have recently written publicly to Matthew Hancock in an attempt to criticise Andy Burnham. They appear to have ignored that the call for the whole of Manchester to be placed in a level of lockdown came at around 9.15 last Thursday from Matthew Hancock although it was a decision which Andy Burnham agreed to accept. It is clear that two out of the ten areas in Greater Manchester have been less impacted than the other eight, but all have been impacted to an extent and have seen increases in COVID-19 cases. The starting point is that our nation which includes Sussex and Manchester needs to handle the attempt to end a national lockdown approach very carefully. As I suggested in my blog on Monday that was published in the Argus newspaper, it is vital that the MPs in Sussex learn from the way in which Manchester is being impacted. Manchester contains 27 MPs who represents a population of about 2.7m people. Sussex contains 16 MPs who represent a population of about 1.6m people. The Manchester MPs are 18 Labour and 9 Conservative. The Sussex MPs are 13 Conservative, 2 Labour and one Green. It is vital that the residents of Manchester and the residents of Sussex can all benefit from MPs in their area working together, irrespective of the party differences. Although Manchester is much bigger, it does have the benefit of an area wide elected Mayor (Andy Burnham) which in due course Sussex should be seeking to achieve. However the relationship between the MPs in Sussex and the numerous local authorities has a much greater set of challenges because apart from our Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner and the Sussex Police along with a range of charities that cover the whole of Sussex there is not a lot of connection when compared to the whole of Manchester. However we do have one Chief Officer for West and East Sussex County Councils who is very well known in Brighton and Hove Council so there are some tentative elements. The fact is that when issues impact Sussex like the issues that impact Manchester, we need the MPs to work together and instead of sending party based messages to the Government, that they recognise the need to communicate locally with their colleagues in the public sector and then dramatically improve the provision for their constituents.