English National Opera doesn't deserve to come to Manchester if the company thinks people in the city are such "heathens" that nobody would go to its performances, Andy Burnham said today.
The Greater Manchester mayor waded into the row over the future of the prestigious opera company, which has been told it will only continue to get Arts Council England funding if it relocates outside the capital, possibly to Manchester.
English National Opera (ENO) is now campaigning for the decision to be reversed and says the move, part of a wider effort to spend more public arts subsidy outside the capital, as "not doable".
