It's a bit disingenuous for the airport to blame the handling agents, I've seen first hand the car crash is the baggage system, it simply can not cope with the volume of bags. True, there is a staffing shortage but the reality is this all still stems back to MAG and a woeful underinvestment in the baggage system. They have focused on security as that is visible to the passengers, and more importantly to the media, but the reality is tens of thousands of passengers recently have arrived with no baggage because it's still at the baggage hall in Manchester.
This is not a handling agent issue and this is MAN shirking responsibility and trying to spin the attention away from themselves.