DEPUTY Prime Minister Michael Heseltine has been urged to promise cash help for small businesses like the Leigh-based craft firm devastated by the Manchester bomb.

This week in the House of Commons local MP Terry Lewis urged him to put small businesses - like Glennis Andrews' Handcrafted Creative Recycling - top of his agenda when he visited the city.

She is a partner in a thriving craft business which has been put on ice because stock and transport have been stranded for 12 days since the city centre blast.

Mr Lewis asked Mr Heseltine to meet business people from the Royal Exchange and Corn Exchange complexes.

He told him: "I am afraid insurance companies are already ducking and diving about insurance matters.

And a frustrated Mrs Andrews, of Manchester Road, was grateful for his efforts to get her show back on the road.

Annoyed at being left in the dark she said: "We have heard we may not have access to our van or stock at the Royal Exchange for two to four weeks.

"We're losing a lot of money. Friends have been incredibly generous with offers of help, time and money.

"I understand if this had happened in Northern Ireland everybody would be fully compensated for their losses. But the government hasn't told us a thing which is worrying when you have spent four years building-up a business.

"I know the Royal Exchange building where our goods are is very badly damaged with the worst damage on the north side. Domes have been destroyed and there are cracks in the Arcade ceiling.

"Nobody has been allowed across the theatre floor."

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