BORIS Johnson’s announcements about changes to the strategy to combat the coronavirus pandemic and ease aspects of the lockdown do not make sufficiently clear they only applied to England, according to Nicola Sturgeon.
Speaking after watching his televised address last night, the First Minister said with the exception of the introduction of rules requiring people entering the UK to go into quarantine for two weeks the moves would not be implemented in Scotland.
The Prime Minister unveiled a series of updates to his strategy in a pre-recorded speech from Downing Street at 7pm last night.
He unveiled the UK Government’s new slogan urging the country to ‘Stay Alert to Control the Virus and Save Lives’ – phrasing that ditches the ‘Stay At Home’ message used since lockdown began in March.
In what he called “a change of emphasis” the Prime Minister said that “anyone who can’t work from home, for instance those in construction or manufacturing, should be actively encouraged to go to work”. He also said some primary school pupils could return by June 1 “at the earliest” while there are plans for the “phased reopening” of shops at the same time.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon: Why I will continue to ask Scotland to Stay at Home
Responding to his speech, the First Minister said: “Pretty much everything he said in his statement applied to England, my job is to take decisions based on the data for Scotland and my judgement is in the medium term with the one exception I outlined today with people able to exercise outside as much as they want ... the way to suppress this virus is to stay at home except for exercise, food and medicine or if you are doing essential work.”
She added: “We must take decisions for Scotland that are based on the evidence here and absolutely based on keeping people as safe from the virus as possible.”
She continued: “He is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom ... but these restrictions are in place legally, separately in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and therefore we have a duty to take decisions in our own jurisdictions about the speed with which we lift those.
“I think it is incumbent on him – maybe perhaps a bit more strongly than he did tonight – to stress that when he is talking about lifting these restrictions he is talking for England and of course when he is talking about things like border control he is talking for the whole of the UK. We ... have a duty to be as clear as possible.”
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