Nicola Sturgeon blasts PM over planned trip to Scotland

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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 

By Jack Maidment, Deputy Political Editor For Mailonline

Published: | Updated:

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 is widely expected to go to Scotland later this week to make the case for the Union

Boris Johnson announces new hotel quarantine rules

Boris Johnson today revealed travellers to the UK from 22 ‘high risk’ Covid countries will be forced to quarantine in hotels for 10 days.

Mr Johnson also announced that Britons will be sent home from airports if they fail to prove their trip abroad is ‘essential’. 

Airlines are expected to be fined if they fail to enforce non-exemptions properly after influencers were accused of ‘taking the p***’ by jetting out to Dubai, claiming their Instagram updates constituted work. 

The Prime Minister is introducing an Australian-style quarantine scheme following concerns about new Covid variants entering Britain – but ignored a plea from Priti Patel and Health Secretary Matt Hancock to apply the diktat to all arrivals.

Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer told the Commons today that the Government had ‘failed’ by being ‘too slow’ to bring it in and claiming that quarantining people from 22 countries ‘doesn’t go far enough’. 

The 22 ‘high risk’ countries, due to be published later today by the Home Secretary along with a start date, are expected to include Brazil, South Africa, Portugal, Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, much of South America and southern Africa. 

These areas have been chosen because of dangerous variants that have emerged there – or because they have rocketing infection and death rates.

Passengers arriving in Britain from any of the listed countries will have to isolate for 10 days in hotels near airports and pay around £1,500 for the privilege.     

Mr Johnson told the Commons: ‘I want to make clear that under the stay at home regulations, it is illegal to leave home to travel abroad for leisure purposes and we will enforce this at ports and airports by asking people why they are leaving and instructing them to return home if they do not have a valid reason to travel.

‘We have also banned all travel from 22 countries where there is a risk of known variants including South Africa, Portugal and South American nations.

‘And in order to reduce the risk posed by UK nationals and residents returning home from these countries, I can announce that we will require all such arrivals who cannot be refused entry to isolate in Government provided accommodation, such as hotels, for 10 days without exception.

‘They will be met at the airport and transported directly into quarantine. The Department of Health and Social Care is working to establish these facilities as quickly as possible.’  

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, amid suggestions that the trip would not be within the spirit of the travel rules.

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.’