JOHN Swinney has knocked back the mayor of Greater Manchester’s demands for the Scottish Government to pay compensation to people affected by a new travel ban.

Andy Burnham has repeatedly criticised Holyrood ministers after Nicola Sturgeon announced on Friday that all non-essential travel to Manchester and Salford would be banned from today.

The Labour politician said neither he nor his administration were not contacted before the announcement. Stepping up his attack on the Andrew Marr Show, he accused the Scottish Government of “hypocrisy” and said he was writing to the First Minister to demand compensation for those who had to cancel trips to Scotland.

WATCH: Andy Burnham steps up attack on Scottish Government over travel ban

However, the Deputy First Minister has hit back, dismissing the request as not "a relevant point".

"We obviously face many challenges in the suppression of coronavirus," Swinney told the BBC's Today programme. "We have in place, in Scotland, business support that we have made available to companies to try and sustain them, there will be support in place in England for exactly the same circumstances.

"We have got to take decisions based on the data that presents itself and sometimes that is very uncomfortable data for us.

"We have to act quickly to try to make sure we are doing everything possible to suppress the spread of the virus, and that is what members of the public would expect of us."

The Deputy FM defended his government's decision to implement the ban, insisting it acted within the realms of what the public would expect from them.

He commented: "We have got to take decisions based on the data and the evidence that presents itself, and take decisions which are designed to stop the spread of the virus.

"In our judgment, the rising case numbers and the high levels of the virus in the Greater Manchester and Salford area justified the decision we took and we are taking that to try and minimise the circulation of the virus."

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When questioned about the last-minute nature of the ban, he added: "That is something we will reflect on but we put in place very similar provisions in relation to Bolton, which is part of the Greater Manchester area, back in May, and we've just followed exactly the same approach in relation to this decision."

Speaking yesterday, Burnham told Marr that he was “really disappointed” by the First Minister’s announcement on Friday, which he described as “out of the blue”.

"That is exactly what the SNP always accuse the Westminster Government of doing, riding roughshod over people,” the mayor said.

"The SNP are treating the north of England with the same contempt in bringing that in without any consultation with us."

He added: "I just think it's double standards, it's hypocrisy. They've done to us exactly what they always complain that the UK Government does to Scotland."