JACKSON Carlaw has claimed "there is no border" between Scotland and England in a tweet that hit out at Nicola Sturgeon's lockdown exit strategy. 

The Scottish Tory leader said it was "ridiculous" for the First Minister to ask for the border to be closed if the UK government tries to prematurely end the lockdown.

He tweeted: "It is ridiculous to suggest Nicola Sturgeon could close the border. There is no border - we are one United Kingdom."

Appearing on the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme, the First Minister said she would diverge from the four-nation approach to tackling the coronavirus if the advice she received suggested doing so would “protect the population”.

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon could ask to close border if UK ends lockdown prematurely

Asked if she would consider closing the border between Scotland and England, Sturgeon replied: “I don’t have the power to close borders, but these are discussions of course we want to continue to have with the UK Government.

“And on this question of will Scotland do things differently, not for the sake of it we won’t, only if the evidence and our judgement tells us that that is necessary.

“That means if – it is an if, I’m not saying that we’re likely to get into this territory – if the UK government took decisions that I thought were premature in terms of coming out of the lockdown then clearly I would want to make sure that Scotland did what I judged was best to protect the population."

Twitter users hit out at Carlaw's comments.

Ross Colquhoun said the Scottish Tory leader "must get confused every time he crosses the border between Scotland and England".

Gerry Hassan said: "Might not be the border independence supporters desire but it is a legal, fiscal & historic border & one with big political differences on either side."

SNP MSP Stewart Stevenson added: "There are borders everywhere. Between Yorkshire and Lancashire. Between Kent and Surrey. Between Perthshire and Angus. Policies and practices change at borders. Are the Tories saying they shouldn't?"