Nicola Sturgeon says Boris Johnson should keep OUT of Scotland under her Covid travel ban – as she prepares to introduce even TOUGHER hotel quarantine rules than England
- Boris Johnson is expected to visit Scotland this week to make case for the Union
- But Nicola Sturgeon has questioned whether the trip constitutes essential travel
- She said the PM has a ‘duty to lead by example’ as she urged him not to make trip
- Meanwhile, SNP leader claimed PM’s hotel quarantine plan is not strict enough
Nicola Sturgeon today questioned whether Boris Johnson‘s planned trip to Scotland is ‘essential’ as she said he has a ‘duty to lead by example’ and stick to coronavirus travel rules.
The Prime Minister is expected to travel north of the border later this week to make the case for the Union and to urge Scots to reject separatism.
But Ms Sturgeon said she is ‘not ecstatic’ about the PM’s trip and urged him to listen to his own advice to people to ‘work from home if you possibly can’.
Meanwhile, Ms Sturgeon blasted Mr Johnson’s new hotel quarantine plan as she said it is ‘does not go far enough’.
Current curbs in Scotland dictate that people should not cross the border unless it is an essential journey.
Travel for work is allowed ‘but only where that cannot be done from your home’.
Nicola Sturgeon today said she is ‘not ecstatic’ at the prospect of Boris Johnson making a trip to Scotland as she said he has a ‘duty to lead by example’ and stick to Covid travel rules
Mr Johnson is widely expected to go to Scotland later this week to make the case for the Union
Mr Johnson’s expected trip to Scotland comes after the SNP on Saturday released an 11-point ‘roadmap’ to holding another independence referendum.
The party has made clear a ballot could take place if May’s Holyrood elections result in a pro-independence majority – even if Westminster refuses to grant permission for a re-run of the 2014 referendum.
There have now been 20 consecutive polls suggesting a majority of Scots could vote in favour of independence.
Mr Johnson has repeatedly said he will not grant permission for another referendum because he believes the first ballot settled the issue for a generation.
The prospect of the PM visiting Scotland this week has prompted SNP fury.
Ms Sturgeon told her daily Covid-19 briefing in Edinburgh: ‘I am not and never would be saying that Boris Johnson is not welcome in Scotland. He is the Prime Minister of the UK.
‘But beyond that everybody is welcome in Scotland… Boris Johnson is not unwelcome in Scotland even if I had the ability to stop him.
‘That is not what this is about and I would be really disappointed if that is how what I am about to say is translated.
‘But we are living in a global pandemic and every day right now I stand, look down the camera, and say what I am about to say, Boris Johnson does that, I heard him do it as recently as yesterday: Don’t travel unless it is really essential, work from home if you possibly can.
‘That has to apply to all of us. Now, people like me and Boris Johnson have to be in work for reasons that I think most people understand.
‘But we don’t have to travel across the UK as part of that. Is that really essential right now? Because we have a duty to lead by example and if we are going to suggest that we don’t take these rules as seriously as we should it gets harder to convince other people.
‘That is why I perhaps am not ecstatic about the thought of the Prime Minister visiting.
‘It’s not because he is not welcome, in fact if I was standing here being political you could perhaps conclude that I would be quite welcoming of him coming to Scotland.
‘But we are in a global pandemic. Let’s all remember the importance of these rules and the importance of us, none of us are infallible as I have demonstrated but we have all got a duty to lead by example here.’
The Scottish First Minister also announced that she intends to go further than Mr Johnson on the issue of hotel quarantine.
The PM announced this afternoon that UK nationals and residents returning from ‘red list’ countries will be placed in quarantine in Government-provided accommodation for 10 days.
The red list countries are those with very high case numbers or where a new variant of the disease has been identified.
Ms Sturgeon said: ‘I think I do have a duty at this point to say that I am concerned that the proposal does not go far enough and I’ve made that point very strongly in the four-nations discussions that we’ve just had today.
‘So while the Scottish Government will initially emulate the UK Government’s steps on enhancing quarantine arrangements, we will be seeking urgently to persuade them to go much further, and indeed to move to a comprehensive system of supervised quarantine.
‘Given the obvious practical issues involved, we are very clear that our preference is to have consistent quarantine rules across the UK, but if there is no agreement to go further on a four-nations basis, we will be considering going further ourselves and we will set out any such additional measures next week.’