'It’s horrible out here... we moved as people were smoking spice' - Waking up on on the streets of Manchester on Christmas Day

It’s Christmas morning and Manchester city centre is uncharacteristically quiet. Usually teeming with people and chock full of traffic with the sound of screeching trams, only a few walked the streets.

Among those were the homeless. Rough sleepers, who, instead of waking up in a warm house to presents under a tree, woke up to a cold pavement for a pillow and a sleeping bag for a duvet.

Over the last few years, Manchester Evening News has spent Christmas morning speaking to those rough sleepers waking up on the streets of Manchester.

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Sharing one large pink sleeping and sat at the entrance of a shop on Market Street were Claire Barber, 35, Benjamin Butler, 40 and their friend Ash, 37, who asked to not be photographed.

Despite the bleak circumstance they found themselves in, they made an effort to revel in the Christmas spirit. Benjamin wore an elf hat, Claire wished a very loud and Manc 'Merry Christmas' to passer-bys and their makeshift collection pot was decorated with fairy lights for good measure.

Ben has been on the streets for four years and Claire, six. They are a couple and say the reason they are sleeping rough on Christmas Day is because finding shelter would mean separating.

“We tried to find shelter, but there’s two of us, they tried to put one on one side of Manchester and the other somewhere else.” Explained Ben. “It’s Christmas Day, we want to be together.”

Claire continued: “It’s horrible out here, we slept a few streets away, but moved here around 4am because it got a bit. People were smoking spice."

Like most years, the topic of