Covid Scotland: Nicola Sturgeon snipes at Boris Johnson strategy
Nicola Sturgeon snipes at Boris Johnson with claims Scotland is ‘reaping the dividends’ of her cautious approach to coronavirus crisis
- Nicola Sturgeon has sniped at Boris Johnson over his coronavirus crisis response
- Tweeted story arguing Scotland benefited by taking different approach to PM
- Comes after Ms Sturgeon claimed Mr Johnson had ‘made up’ June 21 exit date
- The PM has also faced accusations of moving too slowly which he has rejected
Nicola Sturgeon has taken a swipe at Boris Johnson over his response to the coronavirus crisis as she appeared to back claims that Scotland had done better than England.
Ms Sturgeon tweeted a story published by the Financial Times with the headline ‘Scotland reaps dividend of Covid response that diverged from England’.
The Scottish First Minister said the story, which suggested ‘Sturgeon’s greater willingness to maintain restrictions has helped Scotland keep deaths and infections lower than in England’, was ‘worth a read’.
It comes after Ms Sturgeon yesterday claimed that the Prime Minister had ‘made up’ his target date of June 21 for getting life in England back to something close to normal as the SNP leader faces calls to speed up her roadmap.
Mr Johnson has also faced pressure to move more quickly but he has repeatedly insisted that he intends to stick with his timeline which will see rules eased every five weeks.
Nicola Sturgeon has sniped at Boris Johnson over his response to the coronavirus crisis
Ms Sturgeon yesterday claimed Mr Johnson had ‘made up’ his back to normal date of June 21
The latest coronavirus statistics published yesterday showed that Scotland had recorded a further 47 deaths from the disease.
That brought the death toll in Scotland under this measure – of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days – to 7,053.
Meanwhile, NHS England said yesterday a further 302 people had died in hospital from coronavirus.
That brought the total number of confirmed deaths reported in hospitals in England during the pandemic to 82,156.
Ms Sturgeon and Mr Johnson are locked in a row over their respective lockdown exit strategies.
Ms Sturgeon’s roadmap is considerably more cautious than Mr Johnson’s, with the PM having set a June 21 deadline for all significant rules to have been lifted.
The SNP leader has faced a backlash over her approach with critics suggesting the strategy is vague because it fails to give any firm dates beyond April for rules to be loosened. Ms Sturgeon has promised to give another update in mid-March.
Fending off criticism of her approach yesterday, the First Minister said she would not give any dates until she knows they are ‘real’.
‘If I was to give you a fixed, hard and fast date right now, I would pretty much be making it up and I don’t think that’s the approach I should take with you,’ she said.
‘I’m not ruling out any specific dates. I want it to be as soon as possible and we have every reason to be hopeful that come the summer life will be much, much, much better than it is just now, but when I stand here and give you what I think the actual date when all or most restrictions will come to an end is going to be, I want to be as sure as I can be that is real and it can be delivered.’
Mr Johnson has been forced to defend the speed of his proposed easing of lockdown, yesterday hitting back at Tories and scientists who suggested he could move faster.
The PM said he was being ‘sensible and prudent’ with his four-stage plan after attacks on the approach from all sides.
‘Some people will say we’re going to be going too fast, some people will say we’re going too slow,’ he said on a visit to a school in South London.
Mr Johnson refused to guarantee that all restrictions will definitely be lifted by June 21 as scheduled, but insisted he was ‘hopeful’ it can happen.
His intervention came after Health Secretary Matt Hancock slapped down Professor Neil Ferguson for suggesting the roadmap for England could be speeded up.
But Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg risked setting more hares running by suggesting that there could be ‘flexibility’ in the Government’s timeline if ministers continue to ‘smash’ vaccine targets.
Tories and business have been voicing disquiet about the ultra-cautious approach being taken by ministers, even though the vaccination drive has been surging ahead.
Schools will return on March 8, but there will be almost no further loosening of the draconian curbs before Easter.
There will be a five week gap between each of the four main stages of the plan, with scientists having won the argument in government that time is needed to assess the impact.
The PM has been boosted by snap polls showing the public largely backs his stance, with 46 per cent telling YouGov it is about right – and around a fifth suggesting it is too fast.
Prof Ferguson – whose grim modelling triggered the initial lockdown last year – sounded a bright note on Times Radio last night.
‘Hopefully what we’ll see when each step happens is a very limited resurgence of infections. In which case, there’s a faint chance we can accelerate the schedule,’ he said.
However, Mr Hancock dismissed the idea of speeding the schedule up in a round of interviews this morning. ‘No. We need to see the effects of each step, and that takes five weeks,’ he said.
