Manchester does not want congestion charging but it does want £3billion to extend its tram network and pay for better train and bus services.

The city realises that the Government will not give it the money unless it introduces tolls and therefore it is likely to approve the charging scheme this autumn, albeit reluctantly.

The deal has been cleverly designed by Government to ensure that local politicians of all parties must risk their political necks by approving it. Seven of the ten local authorities in Manchester have to vote in favour of the deal for it to go ahead. Once they have accepted it, they will not then be able to claim that it was forced upon them.

It may sound like the councils are being bribed into charging drivers up to £5 a day, but they will be wary of making this accusation themselves because he who accepts a bribe is just as guilty as he who offers it.

The Manchester charging scheme — masterminded by Lewis Atter, a director of KPMG accountants and former head of the Treasury’s transport team — will be a bolder experiment that the London congestion charge, because a much greater proportion of the city’s citizens will have to pay. About 20 per cent of drivers will cross one or both of the two charging cordons each day; in London, fewer than 5 per cent of drivers pay the £8 congestion charge.

Unlike the London scheme, which was rushed in during Ken Livingstone’s first term as mayor, Manchester will have five years to get used to the idea. The city will also see public transport steadily improving over that time because virtually all the £3billion will be invested before charging begins in 2013.

By that time, Manchester may come to believe that it got a very good deal indeed, gobbling up far more than its fair share of the national funding pot for public transport investment.

The intervening years will, however, prove politically difficult for the architects and supporters of the scheme. Its main proponent, Roger Jones, who was Labour chairman of the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority, lost his council seat last month to an anti-charging candidate.

The opponents of the scheme have already said that they will mount a ferocious campaign to unseat Ruth Kelly, the Transport Secretary and MP for Bolton West, in the next general election.

Ms Kelly might have thought twice about approving funding for Manchester’s bid if she believed she had a realistic chance of keeping her seat . But with a majority of only 2,000, the smallest in the Cabinet, she probably realises she will lose her seat anyway and has chosen to go out in a blaze of glory after making a “brave decision”, as Sir Humphrey would have put it.

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