JIM Wilson is no stranger to hard work.

For more than 40 years, he worked for the multinational retailer Timpsons as a specialist in shoe and watch repairs, key cutting, and engraving.

The work was exacting, and the hours often long.

As he went into his sixties, he decided it was time to strike out on his own, using his skills to create his very own business.

It made absolute sense – a chance to reap rewards that matched his efforts. So on March 13, he signed a five-year lease on shop premises, in Lowther Street, Carlisle. Within days, Boris Johnson was talking ominously of a national coronavirus lockdown – and then on March 23, the shutdown began.

From that day, Jim and his wife Lisa, 53, have been living through a kind of nightmare: running their newly launched business in a city centre that was virtually deserted for months and even now remains subdued, stripped of the daily bustle that should fuel its economy.

It’s little wonder Jim, 61, of Lowry Hill, Carlisle, backs Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester.

For ten days, he was locked in tense negotiations with the Government as Boris Johnson refused to approve a £65m support package, the two sides separated by just £5m.

The result: Prime Minister Boris Johnson will today impose the highest ‘tier 3’ level of coronavirus restrictions.

Burnham says his community now faces “a winter of real hardship”and accuses ministers of playing ‘poker’ with people’s lives by failing to offer adequate support to restriction-hit businesses.

“Andy Burnham is quite right: businesses need the support,” says Jim. “If they don’t get it why would they follow the guidance? Everybody in a retail environment is putting their lives on the line every day if it’s as deadly as they say it is. We deal with the public every single day.”

Opening his own business was a long-held dream, he says. He and Lisa sold their home to fund the venture, and were full of hope. “We were over in Currock,” he says. “It was a lovely semi and I’d spent a lot of money on it and a lot of time. I was there 15 years.

“It seemed like a good move. It was a case of I’d be making the money for me rather than for somebody else. I thought within two years we’d be buying again. We were working on it way back in June last year and we signed the lease the weekend before lockdown. “We were actually in Ireland buying the machinery for the business when lockdown was announced.

“We sold our house to set up the business and started renting on the basis that we’d make the money back to start buying a house as soon as possible.

“But that doesn’t look likely any time soon.”

Jim’s only financial support has been Universal Credit – £150 per week, enough for he and Lisa to “scrape by”.

The easing of lockdown did allow them to finally open the business on July 27. But it’s been as if life in the city centre has been paused, with shoppers and office workers staying away. Often, the streets are eerily quiet.

Jim says: “There have been ups and down. When we found out we couldn’t really do anything for three months, we were really down. When we finally got started, it was a buzz because we were up and running. We got opened – but we’ve been down again because there’s so little footfall.

“It really is a struggle.

“We have good days and bad days. We’re pulling each other through it. Our predictions were for an average a turnover of about £1,600 a week. The reality is we’re making about £500 a week – and that’s a good week.

“Numbers are very low. Some days there’s nobody: the town’s empty. You think: ‘Why did I bother getting out of bed this morning? But you keep plodding on – in hope: hope that the customers will come. We’re trying everything we can. We’ve got Facebook up and running.

“We’ve put signs up; handed out leaflets. We’ve never had no people through the door, but we’ve had a couple of days when it was only one or twopeople; the sales were not there at all.”

Understandably, Jim has had low spots. “We’ve been under a lot of stress,” he says. “We’ve had days when we’ve thought: what the hell do we do? My wife says I nearly had a breakdown – a night recently when I was up in the middle of the night – basically in tears because things weren’t happening.

“She sat with me and talked me through it.

“It did get to that point: a very, very low point. We’re relying on each other; and we’re relying on friends. My wife hardly sleeps at all; she’s awake most nights... and I ask myself: are things going to get any better? Are we actually going to get our own house again? Will we be renting the rest of our lives?”

Asked what Boris Johnson can do to help, Jim replies without hesitation: “Give more support to the businesses. There are a lot of people in the same boat – some even worse. There are people who have taken out massive loans to do what we’re doing. They’re trying to pay those back and not getting the money in.

“It must be a nightmare.”

The stark reality is Jim and Lisa are among thousands of business people whose livelihoods are being battered by the pandemic.

Cumbria County Council Leader Stewart Young fully backs Andy Burnham.

Along with other northern leaders, he has signed a letter backing the fellow Labour politician, calling for the Government to “immediately introduce an improved and locally flexible Business Compensation Package for all areas subject to Tier Two and Tier Three restrictions.”

Mr Young said: “What Andy Burnham knows if that if you go into tier 3 for health reasons there’ll be a huge amount of damage to the local economy and businesses like the one [launched by Jim Wilson]. So if you’re going to do that then you need to support those businesses.

“Otherwise, the consequences of that in the longer term could be even greater than those of Covid-19.” The Government doesn’t trust local leaders and is too focused on spin, he says.

Carlisle MP John Stevenson accuses Andy Burnham of “playing pure politics” with the crisis. “He knows if the Government capitulates to him he wins; and if it doesn’t, he just blames the Government. Nevertheless, I don’t call him out for trying to do the best for Manchester.

“But business support has to be consistent right throughout the country.

“This is not a regional problem; it’s a national one. Whatever support is appropriate and whatever they can afford should be put in place.

“This is so that if Carlisle were to move into tier 3, we would know exactly what support is available rather than going into a localised negotiation with Government, which I don think is the right approach.

“We have to ensure viable businesses survive. We’re beginning to lose sight of the link between wealth creation and public expenditure.”